London: Former England batsman, Kevin Pietersen is taking potshots at England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)'s earlier stand on not allowing it's players to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In a recent "mutually agreed" decision by ECB and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), both the boards decided to cancel the 3 match ODI and T20I series that was supposed to be played in September and October 2021.
In May 2021, the ECB had made strict arrangements so that the English players do not take part in the remainder of the IPL 2021. Pietersen asked his Twitter fans to hunt down his old tweet where he had said that the England players "will play in the IPL" if they stay united. The fans also did not dissapoint KP as they found the tweet where he had written: "It’s going to be v interesting to watch how the ECB handle this issue around not allowing it’s best players to play IPL, if it’s rescheduled. When I went up against ENG, I was alone. This time, it’s all their best branded players! If they stand together, they’ll play IPL!"
In the above tweet, we see Pietersen predicting that the English players will play in the IPL as all of them are England's "best branded players".
England Director of Cricket, Ashley Giles, in May had said that the ECB will not allow it's players to play in IPL as the tours of Bangladesh and Pakistan are scheduled during the same time. "We're planning on involvement of England players in England matches. We've got a full FTP schedule. So if those tours to Pakistan and Bangladesh are going ahead, I'd expect the players to be there," Giles said in May 2021 as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Pietersen also took a dig at Ashley Giles:
The fact of the matter is that IPL is a cash-rich league and the players involved woul obviously not want to miss playing the franchise cricket,.