Former Australian Skipper Michael Clarke has made big revelation of Australia going soft on India and Virat Kohli during Australia tour due to fear of losing Indian Premier League money.
He has said that Austrlia didn’t sledged Team and Kohli due to IPL contracts or fear of losing big money contract.
“Everybody knows how powerful India are in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL,” Clarke told Big Sports Breakfast.
“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.”
Since the tournament’s inception in 2008, Australian players have been an integral part of most IPL sides, season after season.
Clarke himself played six games for the now-defunct Pune Warriors India side in 2012, and has been part of the IPL commentary panel after retirement.
“Name a list of ten players and they are bidding for these Australian players to get into their IPL team. 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.”
India won Test series 2-1 against hosts Australia.