IPL should be condensed into a three-week window, says Vaughan India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan has called for the Indian Premier League (IPL) to be condensed into a three-week window open to all in order to stop more players going down the 'gun for hire' route chosen by Andrew Flintoff. Vaughan, speaking after Flintoff rejected an ECB incremental contract in order to set his own playing agenda for the next 12 months, said more players will come into conflict with their own boards unless the IPL situation is cleared up. The 2010 competition will take place over six weeks between March 12 and April 25, leaving just five days between the final and the start of the ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean. The Sun quoted Vaughan as saying: "These IPL contracts are life-changing. One of the easiest ways to solve this is to open up a window. Six weeks is too long. If you cut that down to a three-week tournament with the world's best players, Twenty20 at its best, you would make it an unbelievable spectacle. The window would be open and we would not have to talk about these issues. Let everyone play and let the boards run the rest of the calendar."