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IPL is good for the game: Viv Richards

Melbourne: West Indian great Sir Vivian Richards, while welcoming the Indian Premier League (IPL), said the huge money associated with the venture would do cricket a world of good. He said there was nothing wrong in bringing a lot of money to the game as it would be beneficial to the players.

“If it can be arranged I don’t think anything would be wrong with that. Others, establishment-wise, see these things sometimes as threatening but I think it must be discussed,” Richards was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“We have long complained about the money in cricket. I think it’s great for those guys, now that they know financially they can secure their future,” he said.

Richards said that the IPL would help Twenty20 cricket grow bigger. “The kind of money that was attached to cricket made a lot of people run away to try other careers, but now that we have the perks there will be a lot more cricketers trying to hit that jackpot. “So long as the Indians are going to be on board with the mass audience and power they have in world cricket, it is a great endorsement for the Twenty20 form to go further.”

A big fan of Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds, Richards said players of his calibre would enhance the glamour of IPL.

“I am a great fan of Andrew Symonds, his fielding and the way in which he plays his cricket. Having people like that on board is certainly going to add to the (IPL) razzmatazz,” he said. — PTI

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