01 May,2011 07:31 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Sri Lanka coach Stuart Law has said that India needs to be kept "sweet." considering the financial clout the nation wields in the business of world cricket
Stuart Law Sri Lanka coach
"The IPL situation -- we've got to be smart with that. India, they are big brother, we've got to look after them, we don't want to upset them. It's where a lot of the world cricket boards make a lot of their money, so we've got to keep India sweet," Law told The Age newspaper.
Three weeks ago, Law, who played 54 one-day internationals and a Test for Australia, was appointed interim coach of Sri Lanka. The island nation's cricket plunged to a crisis after the 2011 World Cup final loss to India on April 2. Captain Kumar Sangakkara resigned as captain and more recently pace spearhead Lasith Malinga decided to quit Test cricket citing injury concerns. He continues to play the IPL for Mumbai Indians.
Law was sympathetic towards Malinga though. It's a tough one for the players because we're not talking about $10,000 here and there. We're talking about a million dollars and Malinga, when he bowls, he puts his body through hell, so ufffd two more years of IPL cricket and he can put his feet up and not go through that pain again.
"It's disappointing that he doesn't want to play (the) longer (format cricket) but you can't make a guy who goes through hell every time he bowls a cricket ball. I can sympathise with him. I would love him to play every game for us but that's impossible, no one does that these days," said Law.
The Queensland stalwart said that Malinga had told him he wanted to resume his Test career against Australia in August but, when told he must also make himself available for the tour of England, he decided to continue playing in the IPL and figure in only limited-overs cricket for Sri Lanka.
