Former Australian team captain Michael Clarke claims the lure of multi-million dollar deals in the Indian Premier League has affected Australian Cricketer’s ability to be aggressive towards Virat Kohli and the Indian Cricket Team.

Clarke says that all the international cricket teams are sucking up to BCCI and the Indian cricket team. This is because of the financial might of India’s apex cricketing body. BCCI is also regarded as one of the most powerful cricketing bodies across the globe.

Speaking to Fox Sports former World Cup-winning captain Michael Clarke said, “Everybody knows how powerful India is in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL. I feel that Australian cricket, and probably every other team over a little period, went the opposite and actually sucked up to India. They were too scared to sledge Kohli or the other Indian players because they had to play with them in April.”

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A considerable number of  Australian cricketers have signed wealthy deals with their respective IPL franchises. Current Aussie pacer Pat Cummins tops the list as the fas bowler becomes the costliest foreign cricketer in IPL history. Pat Cummins was purchased by Kolkata Knight Riders last December for a whopping 15.5 crore rupees.

Michael Clarke has also played in IPL featuring 6 times for the now-scrapped team Pune Warriors India in 2012. He said that the Aussie cricketers are attentive and cautious of polluting their personal relationship with Kohli.

“Name a list of ten players and they are bidding for these Australian players to get into their IPL team. The players were like: ‘I’m not going to sledge Kohli.  I want him to pick me for Bangalore so I can make my $1 million US for my six weeks,” Clarke commented.

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Michael Clarke fells the attitude of the Australian team has fallen soft especially against the Indian cricket team. The 2015 World Cup-winning captain blames the change for the current performances of the team.  He ended with “I feel like that’s where Australia went through that little phase where our cricket become a little bit softer or not as hard as we’re accustomed to seeing.”