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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Slesh" data-source="post: 16229325" data-attributes="member: 468698">Star batsman Kumar Sangakkara has opted to skip the Indian Premier League (IPL) in order to prepare for the national cricket team’s crucial tour of England in May. Sanga’s decision is much welcomed and hopefully others will follow his example.Sangakkara was one of the players who arrived late in England during Sri Lanka’s last Test series there. The immediate past captain even missed a warm-up game in England. The man who gives much importance to preparation was not fully prepared to take on England in 2011. The end result was Sri Lanka went into the opening Test unprepared and were blown away for 82 runs to lose the game by an innings.Prior to that, he was one of the masterminds to sabotage the proposed tour of England in 2009 that became available due to the void created by Zimbabwe.The IPL no doubt has given players unimaginable financial gains, but Sri Lankan cricket has suffered numerous setbacks with virtually very little international cricket taking place for the national team when the IPL is played. Sanga’s argument that Sri Lankan cricket is not gaining by the IPL is that the players pay ten percent of their IPL earnings to the board. We wonder whether he is justifying lack of international cricket for two months for the exchange of a few hundred thousand dollars. Since the IPL was launched in 2008, some of Sri Lanka’s senior players including Sangakkara have acted irresponsibly putting their IPL interests over national commitments. The fact that players and their agent were far more intelligent than the crooks running Sri Lankan cricket stood in good stead for the players to have things their way.Cricket is going to be hectic lead up to the tour of England. Following the series against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka will remain in that country to play the Asia Cup and will return home for a short break before heading to Bangladesh again for the World T-20.The fact that Sangakkara will not be involved in the IPL will give the country’s best batsman a break and prepare well for the challenges in England.Reacting to the news that Sangakkara won’t play the IPL his critics have argued that he wouldn’t have fetched a high price as the former Sri Lankan captain was benched towards the latter part of the IPL by his franchise last season despite being the franchise’s captain.He may have not played much last year, but had he gone in for the auction, Sangakkara would have attracted the interest of some franchises. While Sangakkara being better prepared for challenges in England will help the team, he will also now have the backing and support of some influential former players who didn’t support him fully in his fight against some administrators.Sangakkara had a black mark as he had put the interests of IPL above national commitments and that weakened his fight against administrators with vested interests.Sanga’s latest commitment will receive tremendous support as he fights a lone battle against administrators who will be quite happy to see his back.Given that Sanga had exhibited highest standards on and off the field, his commitment towards the national team over the IPL should have taken place much earlier than this. It was strange to hear him talk of Test cricket being the prime format of the game one day and the next day being engaged in meetings at golf resorts to ensure that certain Test Matches were sacrificed so that he could play most part of the IPL.He was also one of the senior players who endorsed Lasith Malinga’s retirement from Test cricket.But let this be a start. There’s no better person to remind young cricketers that national commitments should take precedence over all other cricket than Sangakkara.by Rex Clementine - island.lk<img src="http://imageshack.com/a/img191/7895/a6vx.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

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