More Money In IPL Than Domestic Cricket Limiting Players’ Ambitions- Sunil Gavaskar On Various Stars Failing In IPL 2022
Published - 31 May 2022, 06:57 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:08 AM

Sunil Gavaskar has stated that players are getting more money in playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) than working hard in domestic cricket, which has led to limiting their ambitions. The India batting legend was talking about players suffering from the ‘second-season’ syndrome.
Many players who had done brilliantly in their previous IPL season failed to repeat their performances in this IPL 2022 with examples being Venkatesh Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Varun Chakravarthy.
All three of these players played out a remarkable IPL 2022 but couldn’t quite produce a repeat this season as all three of their franchises failed to qualify for the Playoffs.
Considering this, Gavaskar said that in order to pass a true verdict about a player, it is always advised to gauge the cricketer’s performances at least across two IPL seasons before singing praises of them.

“As the IPL comes to its grand finale what have been the gains for Indian cricket? As it happens every year, the IPL has thrown up a few names of whom much can be expected in the future. That said, it’s also been seen how many of the first season stars fade away very quickly, proving the old saying ‘a flash in the pan’ absolutely right. The names are too many to reel off and they include guys who have scored a hundred or taken wickets and scored runs in the knockout stages of the tournament and that’s why it is always better to wait till their next season to find out if he is the real thing or just another false dawn,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.

“The second season syndrome hardly spares anybody and if the player can come back after that, then there’s a good chance that he will have a good career ahead of him. Of course, many an IPL star remains a T20 specialist and doesn’t feature much on the domestic circuit. Many of them are quite happy to do that as they get more money playing the IPL than the domestic circuit and so are quite content to be limited in their ambitions. Once again, these are a fair few so Indian cricket doesn’t really gain much from that,” he added.
There’s Been An Exciting Batch Of Speedsters: Sunil Gavaskar On IPL 2022 Unearthing Good Indian Fast Bowlers
However, Gavaskar was happy about the IPL 2022 throwing up many exciting fast bowlers like Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen, Mohsin Khan and Mukesh Choudhary.
Lockie Ferguson and Umran clocked the top two fastest deliveries of IPL 2022 and the pacers bending their backs and stirring up the speed gun made for some fascinating viewing, reckons Gavaskar.

“This time, there’s been an exciting batch of speedsters who have made the batsmen duck and weave and got the ball to thud hard into the wicketkeeper’s gloves. True, the pitches have had a fair covering of grass and that has helped them to get the carry that they otherwise wouldn’t have found, but still, the sight of a good fast bowler is probably more exciting than a batting prodigy,” he said.