ECB Revokes Its Decision, Billings Denied Return To IPL
May 9, 2017 at 5:37 PM
The England Cricket Board (ECB) has denied the permission to Sam Billings to return to Indian Premier League (IPL) as the board has clearly said that Delhi Daredevils, the franchise which Billings represent, is already ruled out of the race to the next round and there is no use of England batsman joining the camp.
Sam Billings along with Eoin Morgan and Jason Roy had left IPL last week to join the England team, for the two-match ODI series against Ireland, which the home side won by a margin of 2-0. During the series, ECB said that they have allowed Billings and Morgan to join their IPL franchise for at least three games before they fly back but now the board has not allowed Billings to fly to India as Delhi is already out of the race to the playoffs.
It means that it will only be Morgan who will join Kings XI Punjab for their nex three games. Punjab franchise though lost its last game but is still hopeful of making it to the next round.
Morgan will return to England next week along with his teammate Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes to prepare for the three-match ODI series against South Africa and also for the Champions Trophy that follows.
The trio of Stokes, Buttler and Woakes have earlier been granted permission from ECB to skip the Ireland series to play in IPL. The franchise of all the three players will miss out on their series in playoffs.
England will kick off its second preparatory series before Champions Trophy against South Africa from May 24. The host country for the Champions Trophy will kick off its campaign against Bangladesh on June 1 at Kennington Oval in London.