Cricket IPL: Flintoff hopes for IPL in England

Page last updated at 09:02 GMT, Monday, 23 March 2009

Flintoff hopes for IPL in England:

Flintoff will play for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL All-rounder Andrew Flintoff says he would prefer the Indian Premier League to be staged in England. The IPL will be relocated to England, Wales or South Africa as it clashes with the Indian general election, prompting security fears. "It would be good to spend some more time at home so obviously I'd prefer England," said Flintoff. "But I'm sure South Africa would do a good job of staging it if it went there as well." Flintoff was bought by Chennai Super Kings and became the joint most expensive IPL player when the franchise paid $1.55m for him at auction. Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Graham Napier are the other English players involved in the tournament which will see 59 matches played from 10 April to 29 May. 606: DEBATE Ultimately it might be good for the competition to be based in England for a year Weagles A decision is expected this week as to where the IPL will be moved but Flintoff said he was disappointed he would not be able to sample the atmosphere of playing it in India. "It's disappointing news because one of the big attractions for me about the IPL was playing in India," added Flintoff. "I love playing cricket in India, particularly one-day cricket. "I've never played a Twenty20 match over there but I can imagine it woulld be an unbelievable experience because as a player you don't get a chance very often to play in front of big crowds of 40,000 to 50,000 people. "It's unfortunate but if we don't do that this year then hopefully we can do it next year." England is to host the World Twenty20 this summer and if the IPL was staged across the country, it would effectively provide a warm-up for the international tournament. But the IPL may also impinge on the Test and one-day series against the West Indies, which starts on 7 May. "I don't have any real problems with it," said England captain Andrew Strauss. "It's still going to be the same schedule so it's not like our players are going to be missing any more cricket. "I suppose, from our players' point of view, they are at home rather than being away but the counter-argument for that is that opposition players get used to English conditions prior to the World Twenty20."