No longer a bad rap as England hopefuls line up for IPL mega-auction

Months later, Strauss was appointed as director of cricket at the ECB with an enlightened view. “Thirty-eight of the 44 players involved in the semi-finals of the World Cup had IPL experience; we should seek further opportunities to get our guys in there,” he said.

“We have been very clear with the BCCI that our international season starts when it starts,” Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive said this week. “And if that means players missing out on IPL finals at the end of it, that is what happens.

“Last year, there was a caveat to that because we had that New Zealand series which came in[to the schedule] very late. And there were reasons for that. We felt that as we had an agreement in place [that players could play the full season], to renege on that agreement with players in the IPL wasn’t right.”

While Strauss, back involved at the ECB as interim managing director of cricket, insisted that there is no “blanket approach” or policy on players’ availability, fewer multi-format players have put themselves forward this year. There is another T20 World Cup looming in October but only four of the two-dozen players on the final shortlist are in England’s Test squad for their tour to the Caribbean.

“For white-ball specialists, from an England team point of view, it’s a great thing that they’re playing the IPL,” Strauss said. “The problem is for all-format players, and we always have to have a personal approach to our all-format players.

“[It’s about] looking at what the best schedule is for them, with all the tournaments being played around the world, both red- and white-ball, and coming to some informed decisions on a year-by-year basis as to that volume of cricket and what they should and shouldn’t be playing. To have big blanket decisions on this is the wrong approach.”

But perhaps the most revealing aspect of the auction is the involvement of several key ECB decision-makers in the process. Nathan Leamon, England’s white-ball analyst, holds the same role with Kolkata Knight Riders and Mo Bobat, the performance director, worked with Royal Challengers Bangalore over the winter consulting on strategy.

And as for Strauss himself? He remains involved as an advisor at Rajasthan Royals. The vicar, in Pietersen’s estimation, has had N.W.A. on repeat.

England players in IPL auction 2022: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid, Dawid Malan, Eoin Morgan, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Alex Hales, Jofra Archer, George Garton, Tymal Mills, Reece Topley, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, James Vince, Lewis Gregory, Saqib Mahmood, Laurie Evans, Benny Howell, Jake Lintott, David Willey, Craig Overton, Samit Patel.