‘That’s not good for Cricket’: Brett Lee EXPLAINS IPL’s negative impact on the sport

The recent season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) just concluded and Kolkata Knight Riders emerged victorious for the third time in history. However, IPL 2024 will forever be remembered for the mind boggling amounts of runs scored in the tournament and it witnessed the highest ever T20 chase of 264. With sixes flying everywhere and the 250 run milestone being threatened virtually every week, the tournament invited fresh debate over whether this is good for the cricket or not. 

Australia’s legendary bowler and former KKR player, Brett Lee has weighed in on the debate and revealed the negative impact IPL has had on cricket. 

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Brett Lee EXPLAINS the Negative Impact IPL has had on cricket

Brett Lee was at the launch of the Legends Intercontinental League recently and he didn’t hold back his feelings as he explained that such scores, pitches and conditions are not good for cricket and are taking bowlers out of the equation. 

“I'm all for batters smoking the ball all over, but there has got to be something for the bowlers too. I'm not asking for a green top, where teams bowled out for 110, because that's not good for cricket either. You want a good total, I think. Anywhere around that 185 mark to 230 is a good score. We've seen scores now of 265, 270, 277. It's really hard because most bowlers now are going for 45 to 50 off their four overs", explained Brett Lee. 

However, Brett Lee didn’t just blame the conditions he also pointed out that bowlers unwillingness to bowl yorkers at the death has also been one of the key reasons why high scores are being made. 

“If you look back at 17 years of Indian Premier League, on average a yorker goes for a strike rate of less than 100. Which tells me that one run or less per bowler that's executed. I want to see fast bowlers bowl more yorkers. I still don't reckon they execute enough yorkers at the death”, said Brett Lee. 

Brett Lee further mentioned that aside from Team India’s deadly pacer Jasprit Bumrah there aren’t many bowlers in international cricket that are accurate with their yorkers. 

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“On a general rule, other than Bumrah, we haven't seen enough fast bowlers nailing their yorkers recently”, said Brett Lee. 

It will be interesting to see whether the trend of high scoring cricket games was only limited to the IPL 2024 or will it continue in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 as well. 

(With PTI Inputs)