Australian cricketers ‘sucked up’ to India because of IPL: Michael Clarke

Former captain Michael Clarke has claimed that Australia cricketers don’t sledge Indian captain Virat Kohli out of fear of losing their lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts.

While speaking on Big Sports Breakfast, Clarke said that IPL has greatly influenced cricketers around the world in how they treat Indian cricketers.

 “Everybody knows how powerful India are in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL,” Clarke said. “I feel that Australian cricket, and probably every other team over a little period, went the opposite and actually sucked up to India. They were too scared to sledge Kohli or the other Indian players because they had to play with them in April.”

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The former captain believes Australian cricketers abandon their ruthless nature of competing hard while playing against India.

“Name a list of ten players and they are bidding for these Australian players to get into their IPL team,” he said. “The players were like: “I’m not going to sledge Kohli, I want him to pick me for Bangalore so I can make my $1 million US for my six weeks”.”

“I feel like that's where Australia went through that little phase where our cricket become a little bit softer or not as hard as we’re accustomed to seeing,” he added.