ECB snubs players on EPL preparations

The already strained relationship between England and Wales Cricket Board and the players could be further affected with the ECB deciding to keep them away from the planning of its ambitious IPL-style Twenty20 League.

The EPL is tentatively scheduled for a 2010 start and is the brainchild of ECB chairman Giles Clark, who is at loggerheads with the players for failing to strike a deal for them with the Indian Premier League.

According to a report in 'The Daily Mail', the ECB feels it would be "inappropriate" if players are made a part of the EPL planning. The players have, however, not taken too kindly to the snub.

"They are also still smarting over the fall-out from the Stanford Twenty20 fiasco. Now the Professional Cricketers Association have been left exasperated by what they regard as a deliberate snub by the ECB in ignoring the views about how the EPL should be run, not only of England stars such as captain Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, but also of fellow internationals with first-hand experience of the IPL and its rival, the Indian Cricket League, such as Dimitri Mascarenhas, Jeremy Snape, Darren Maddy, Vikram Solanki, Chris Read and Paul Nixon," it wrote.

"The PCA are particularly unhappy that the experience and expertise of the players will be ignored while the ECB say they intend to take full account of the views of the paying public, canvassed expressly for the purpose during last summer's domestic Twenty20," it added.