Indian Players Should Be Allowed To Play In Other T20 Leagues - Aravinda de Silva

Former Sri Lankan player Aravinda de Silva urged the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to allow star Indian players to participate in other T20 leagues across the globe. The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been the best thing that happened to Indian cricket in terms of monetary gains.

The BCCI’s premium tournament joined America’s National Football League (NFL) and England’s Premier League (Football) as the richest sporting tournaments in the world. The BCCI bagged a whopping sum of INR 48,390 crore ($6.2 billion)  for the next cycle of IPL broadcasting rights.

T20 leagues allow players to develop: Aravinda de Silva

The IPL has completed 15 seasons and is only getting powerful each year passing by and the Indian cricket board aims to extend the monthly window to a two-and-a-half-month period along the line.

BCCI’s rivals have also followed the footsteps in getting their own T20 leagues in the line. PSL (PCB), BBL (CA) and The Hundred (ECB) are some of the rival tournaments to IPL that take place in different periods of a calendar year.

“It’s like the county cricket of those days which gave the English cricketers the advantage. The IPL, Big Bash or in England the Hundred and T20 Blitz, those are tournaments which allow players to develop,” Aravinda, who played 93 Tests and 308 ODIs for Sri Lanka, told news agency AFP.

BCCI runs IPL as monopoly: Aravinda de Silva

The BCCI strictly prohibits its players from participating in other T20 tournaments like BBL, PSL, and T20 Blast even if they are not playing for the Indian national side throughout the year.

If a player wants to play in any of the rival T20 leagues of IPL then they need to announce their international retirement foremost and they will be barred to participate from playing in any cricket affairs under the Indian board (including IPL and domestic matches).

“If you have one dominating country, you can see from the IPL, they basically run a monopoly on the premier leagues because the Indian cricketers are not allowed to play in other leagues,” Aravinda said.

“So what will probably happen is that the standard — if it keeps dropping and if there is no real competition — at some point it’s going to affect the global game,” he added.

Yuvraj Singh and Manpreet Gony played for Toronto Nationals in Canada’s Global T20 League in 2019. Mumbai leg-spinner Pravin Tambe became the first Indian player to play in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2020 after joining Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR).

Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan had registered for the CPL draft in 2019 but didn’t receive clearance from BCCI as he had not announced retirement at that point.

Also Read: BCCI Secretary Jay Shah Says IPL Will Get Extended Window