Published: Jan 31, 2018, 01:04 PM (IST)
Edited: Jan 31, 2018, 01:04 PM (IST)
IPL has made teenage cricketers millionaires. There is nothing wrong in making money at such a young age, but New Zealand Cricket Players Association chief executive, Heath Mills, believes that “the whole system is archaic and deeply humiliating for the players”.
Here’s what former Wellington Cricket chief, Peter Clinton, tweeted on Tuesday.
The #IPLAuction is such an undignified, cruel & unnecessary employment practice. Ridiculous that it exists today, belongs in the medieval ages.
— Peter Clinton (@PeterClinton5) January 29, 2018
Speaking to Herald, Mills said, “I think the whole system is archaic and deeply humiliating for the players, who are paraded like cattle for all the world to see.”
Mills, however, appreciated the fact that IPL has given a lot to cricket, but the way it has conducted the players remains a disappointing factor for him. He emptied his mind, adding, “There’s lot of good things about the Indian Premier League and it’s been great for cricket but I’d like to see it mirror the rest of professional sport in the way they engage athletes. The auction system is wrong — it’s not professional, far from it. Apart from the public disappointment of players being are passed in, those who are picked up are treated badly by modern standards.
“The players enter the auction not knowing where they’re are going, who their teammates are going be, who’s managing them, who the owners are — no other sports league in the world engages players on that basis.
“We’ve seen some players play for five or six teams over the 10 years the league has been going. Coaches cannot build an affinity with players, they can’t build a long-term culture.
“The whole thing is very poor and players associations around the world would like to see it change.”
