BCCI Denies Allowing Indian Players For Saudi League- Reports

Updated - 15 Apr 2023, 12:06 AM

India National Cricket Team, BCCI, Saudi League

India National Cricket Team (Image Credits: Twitter)

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According to a report in the Australian media outlet, The Age, it was believed that 6 out of 10 IPL franchises had shown interest to buy the teams in the inaugural Saudi League. It looked as if BCCI would relax their policy to make Indian players available for the Saudi league as we all know Indian players can’t participate in overseas leagues.

In the ever-changing landscape of cricket, all the nations are trying to establish their franchise leagues. We witnessed how UAE launched its International League T20 which received good viewership as we witnessed even contests between bat & ball.

Saudi League is expected to take the game to next level. It would be interesting to see whether the other boards would allow their players to participate as there are a lot of ICC events aligned up. ECB is considering giving extra incentives to keep the players fresh for national duties.

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There is no question of releasing India players- BCCI Source

BCCI source was having an interaction with the media & brushed aside reports of Indian players available for the Saudi League. The source made it clear that they are not changing the policy by any means.

“There is no question of releasing India players. In fact, the premise of the question itself is wrong. There is a policy and we will stick by it,” said the reports in Cricbuzz.

It looks unlikely that IPL franchises would go against BCCI’s policy. We can’t rule out the fact that IPL franchises would be in touch with Saudi League and there are chances that just like SA20, ILT20 & CPL; the IPL franchises would own the teams.

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Cricket would work quite well for Saudi Arabia- ICC Chairperson Greg Barclay

ICC Chairperson Greg Barclay pointed out that Saudis have shown interest in the sport. Saudi Arabia owns the Aramco association, and a lot of boards have raised the partnership of Saudi companies with ICC but ICC has stuck to it. A source close to ICC has stated that ICC Chairperson’s statement can’t be considered to be true.

“If you look at other sports they’ve been involved in, cricket is something I imagine would be attractive to them. Given their advance into sport more generally, cricket would work quite well for Saudi Arabia,” said Greg Barclay.