Former England cricketer Owais Shah has backed Indian Premier League (IPL) to be the biggest tournament in the world. Meanwhile, the 13th edition of the mega event which promises to be even bigger will commence from March 29 with defending champions Mumbai Indians locking horns with Chennai Super Kings.

Since its inception, the cash-rich league has been the biggest platform for the young cricketers to showcase their talent. India have grown from strength to strength in all these years to be one of the dominant forces in world cricket. The intensity level in these games are high which prepares the youngsters both mentally and technically.

Besides, it generates a lot of money and the competition has witnessed a lot of rags to riches stories. It is followed all across the globe which earned heaps of praises from Owais Shah, who himself has plied his trade in the IPL.

“It’s probably the biggest tournament in the world, the most followed. If you look at countries like America, apparently that is the country where the IPL is followed the most outside of India. Then you throw in the financial rewards that are on offer for the players and when you put that together as a package, it is a great, great competition and that is what makes it so big. When you are involved in it, it is something that you do not experience anywhere else in the world” Owais Shah said as quoted by Sky Sports.

Furthermore, Owais Shah expressed that IPL has helped a lot of English players including Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan, and Jos Buttler. The English cricketers will be eyeing to use this platform to prepare for the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia which will follow later this year.

“Eoin Morgan has played a lot of IPL cricket, Jonny Bairstow has done really well in the last couple of years then you’ve got Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and all these guys have really benefitted from playing T20 cricket in the IPL,” he concluded.