Chris Waters: Gale and company not to blame for cricket's conflict of interests

FOR the most part, Andrew Gale has enjoyed a trouble-free ride as Yorkshire captain.

The 26-year-old, who became the club's youngest captain for 76 years when he was appointed in December, 2009, has attracted rave reviews for his impressive leadership – not least from yours truly.

Gale deserves nothing but praise for the way he led Yorkshire to a third-placed finish in last season's County Championship and to the semi-finals of the Clydesdale Bank 40 League, doing an excellent job with a young group of players in tandem with director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon.

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But now the captain finds himself at the centre of a storm over his proposed involvement with the Indian Premier League.

A glance at the supporters' message board on Yorkshire's official website reveals a strong disquiet among the natives that Gale, in common with five of his county team-mates, put his name forward for the money-spinning Twenty20 competition.

The IPL takes place during the opening seven weeks of the season and clashes with six County Championship and five Clydesdale Bank 40 games.

As it turned out, neither Gale, Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad, Ryan Sidebottom, Anthony McGrath nor Adam Lyth were bought by the IPL franchises at last week's auction in Bangalore, meaning they are free to start next summer with the county after all – although Bresnan and Shahzad could still be wanted by England for the Test series against Sri Lanka that begins in May, while Gale later stated he would not have gone to IPL anyway. But the very fact the Yorkshire six put their names forward initially has angered a good number on the White Rose Forum, with Gale coming in for the brunt of criticism.

Here's a flavour of the criticism:

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"It's sad when money rules the heads of cricketers and not loyalty, especially Gale. As the recently appointed captain of the county surely he must realise that losing him for half of the championship fixtures will have a major impact on the club's chances. Has he not got any conscience at all?"

"I'm particularly disappointed that our young captain Andrew Gale should be so quick to jump ship and put his own interests before those of the team he is supposed to be leading on and off the field."

"Just when we seem to be looking like being a force in the real cricket game, the lure of a few bob earned in a worthless slogging competition seem to be all that he is bothered about. I hope someone at the club has a very serious word with him and reminds him of the honour of playing and captaining our great county."

"A little bit of you dies as a supporter when you see that's how so many of them would ideally like to start their season. A few months ago Ryan was 'going about the house with a grin on his face for a week' at the thought of returning to Yorkshire. Now he'd rather be in India. I know we have to be realistic and they have a living to make, but last season, even with its disappointments, we saw Yorkshire rebuild on the basis of its traditional county identity."

And so on.

Of course, there are two sides to every story.

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While the concerns of Yorkshire's supporters are entirely understandable (after all, who wants to pay membership to a club potentially deprived of six key players?), I can also sympathise with Gale and his colleagues.

If offered the chance to make many thousands of US dollars for a few weeks' work, who wouldn't be keen to line their pockets?

If, for example, muggins here was approached by an Indian website to cover the IPL for, say, US$50,000, I would not exactly be telling them where to go. The crucial difference, however, is that in the real world – a world that bears precious little correlation to professional sport – one simply would not be able to swan off for seven weeks and work for someone else, as though one's contract of employment counted for nothing.

Again, if muggins here suddenly announced to the sports editor, "Right, I'm off to India for seven weeks, you'll just have to do without me", the reply would invariably be along the lines of, "Fine, but don't bother coming back."

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That would be the appropriate way for an employer to behave, but, incredibly, it is not the approach counties – Yorkshire included – take to IPL wannabees.

Instead, they choose not to stand in their way for fear of upsetting them – a clear indiciation of how player-power dominates professional sport.

However, the players are not the real villains in this case.

It is all very well for the White Rose Forum to criticise Gale et al but it is human nature to want to maximise one's income and, in seven seasons of covering Yorkshire, I have never seen Gale or any of his colleagues give less than 100 per cent on the field.

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On the contrary, Gale has always struck me as one of the most dedicated professionals around, which is one of the reasons he did such a fine job in his first season in charge.

To all intents and purposes, Gale is a model professional, a man whose attitude to the sport is an inspiration to team-mates.

Rather, the real culprits here are the cricketing authorities – including the England and Wales Cricket Board – which have allowed the game to be torn asunder by Twenty20 and who place the players in an invidious position. In their greed to make money, the authorities have presided over an increasingly saturated fixture list, which leads to precisely the conflict of interest aroused by IPL.

I don't believe for one minute that Gale and his team-mates would want to miss any Yorkshire games. To a man, they would prefer IPL to be staged outside the English summer. Unfortunately, that is simply not possible given the current fixture list.

Either IPL should have its own window (free of international and domestic commitments), or the home boards should put their foot down.

It's an easy get-out to blame the players.