The England Cricket Team might be the number one test team in the world and might be playing some of the best cricket in the world, but the Indian Premier League franchises chose to turn a blind eye to almost all the players who were up for auction ahead of the fifth edition of the extremely popular and money making Twenty 20 League. In spite of being billed as one of the favorites to land a team in the initial processes, wicket keeper batsman Matt Prior went unsold as did his international teammates like James Anderson, Graeme Swann and Ian Bell.
This black out by the Indian Premier League franchises mean that only Eoin Morgan of the Kolkata Knight Riders, Kevin Pietersen of the Deccan Chargers, currently contracted to the Delhi daredevils after a trade off and Stuart Broad of the Kings XI Punjab, who were all picked up at the auction last year will represent England in the popular Twenty 20 League.
No one had guessed prior to the event that the English players would be blacked out this way and with their low base price as well. It was thought that the trio of Anderson, Graeme Swann and Matt Prior would get teams this year after showing some scintillating displays over the last one year or so. However, the franchise owners had other things in mind and did not even bid for any of the players, thereby disappointing all of them.
None of the English players commented about their snub from the IPL, most being busy with the England Cricket Team in the United Arab Emirates ahead of their One Day International series against Pakistan.
Matt Prior, however, is hoping that he still might get a side owing to the busy schedules for the international teams, according to sources close to him.