Ian Botham uses annual Lord’s lecture to criticise Indian Premier League

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/03/ian-botham-lords-lecture-indian-premier-league

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Sir Ian Botham chose the Indian Premier League and David Cameron, an unusual combination of targets, for the fiercest criticism in his MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s.

Botham fell well short of the clinical standards set by previous speakers such as Tony Greig and Kumar Sangakkara but spoke with typical passion about his cricketing career and his views on the game.

He started with politics. “I’d like to downgrade the importance attached to exams and upgrade the importance of sport,” said the 58-year-old, in the Lord’s pavilion.

“Why aren’t the government focusing on sport as a necessity in the school curriculum? This subject drives me insane. I feel it is my duty to point out the problems that confront sport in school, and specifically cricket.

“The problem now is that schools are too big, and when you get 3,000 pupils there is no personal touch with the teacher – and you lose your playing fields. We live in this world now, with political correctness and health and safety, why would you as a teacher be there at six o’clock in the evening when if someone breaks a leg you’d probably get sued?

“Come on, David Cameron. When I came to Downing Street you made all the right noises and promised to come back to me with your ideas. I’m still waiting.”

Botham urged Mike Gatting, his former England team-mate who is the president of the MCC, to make further efforts to ensure that the Ashes urn can be transported to Australia whenever they win the series, arguing that cricket’s oldest international rivalry represents the best bulwark against Twenty20 domination.

“At a time when T20 threatens to take over the game, the Ashes are an important standard for Test cricket,” he said. “We should beware of overkill of the T20. When it began [in county cricket], we played the tournament in a three-week burst and it worked. Since then we have played more of it, and guess what? The crowds have not got bigger. The County Championship needs space to breathe.”

Then he turned his attention to India. “I’m worried about the IPL – in fact I fear it shouldn’t be there at all, as it is changing the priorities of world cricket. How on earth did the IPL own the best players in the world for two months a year and not pay a penny to the boards that have developed them? The IPL is too powerful for the long-term good of the game.

“Corruption is enough of a problem in itself but the IPL compounds that problem given it provides the perfect opportunity for betting and therefore fixing.”

He was dismissive of the scalps so far claimed by the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit as “the odd second XI player”, saying: “To kill the serpent, you must cut off its head. The ICC must pursue the root of the problem, and if necessary expose the big names.”

Botham highlighted an equally eclectic collection of individuals for praise, from his former England captain Mike Brearley and Somerset team-mate Viv Richards to Ken Barrington, John Arlott and Graeme Fowler, the former England opener who runs cricket at Durham University.