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Flintoff admits IPL interest

24/11/2008

All-rounder Andrew Flintoff has admitted his interest in playing Twenty20 cricket in the big-money Indian Premier League (IPL) during the 2009 season.

England lost the fourth one-day international to India in Bangalore by 19 runs yesterday in what effectively became a Twenty20 international because of rain delays.

And Flintoff believes the Indian players' greater experience at this format helped them to deal with the situation when both sides' innings were reduced from 50 overs per side to just 22.

He told the BBC: "[India's players] played in the IPL and have brought that into the 50-over game.

"I'd be keen to have a go at it on the Indian pitches, with the Indian players and international cricketers.

"India are very well-drilled and confident coming into this series and we've been pretty much out-played in each department."

Flintoff said he believes the shortened version of the game could become "an important development in a player's life".

"It's something I think our players would be keen to do," he said.

"We've got to expand our game a little bit. The basics are there, we just need to turn it up a notch."

The next encounter in the seven-match ODI series between India and England takes place in Cuttack on Wednesday.

However, the remaining three matches are already effectively dead rubbers with the hosts having won all four games so far.