The gateway to India opened up by Mascarenhas
DIMITRI MASCARENHAS is currently in lockdown in Australia, but not long ago he was opening the door for a generation of England players to earn riches in the Indian Premier League.
Mascarenhas became the first English player to be snapped up by an IPL franchise in 2008. Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff,
Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer have since cashed in at world cricket’s most lucrative tournament – thanks to the stand taken by the former Hampshire captain.
“I was the first English player to go out there but no-one here wanted me to go,” Mascarenhas said. “This sort of thing had never happened before.
“There was a lot of uncertainty about how the competition was going to impact English cricket, so they pretty much decided the best thing to do was ignore it.
“I had to work very hard to get Hampshire to release me for two weeks. I was allowed to go for two weeks out of 10. But when I got back I had so many messages – everyone wanted to know how they could get out there the following year.
“The next year there were a lot more English players involved. I never really thought of myself as a trailblazer – I just wanted to play cricket.
“But Hampshire’s decision to let me go really set a precedent. It meant that others were free to follow.”
English players are now among the most sought-after cricketers in the tournament – Stokes fetched almost £1.4million in the last auction, when he signed for the Rajasthan Royals.
It’s a far cry from the situation in
2008, when English players were largely unavailable for the tournament and also far from desirable.
But after Mascarenhas made his move, Flintoff and Pietersen enjoyed £1.5m paydays and English players became fashionable.