As the owners of the 10 Indian Premier League franchises meet the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) office-bearers at the Cricket Centre here on Wednesday evening, the regular availability of the overseas players for the next three-year cycle could also be up for discussion.
In the last edition of the tournament, the franchises were livid as England’s T20 World Cup-bound cricketers were asked by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to skip the playoffs due to national commitments. While the BCCI did make a last-ditch effort to convince the ECB to rethink its decision, the latter held its ground, forcing the franchises to look for contingency plans.
Though the IPL Governing Council chairman Arun Dhumal had termed the whole incident ‘unfortunate’ and had assured that such situations won’t arise in the future, the franchises expect a clear directive from the BCCI on the issue to avoid any such instances going forward.
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Even the BCCI is willing to take suggestions from all the stakeholders before deciding on its future course of action. This is why Point No. 2 on the agenda shared with the franchises, which Sportstar has seen, mentions discussions on overseas players.
“Such incidents leave the franchises in a spot as they plan their season keeping the key overseas players in mind. So, it would be easier for us, if we get a clarity from the Board well in advance regarding the availability of the players so that we can move ahead with alternative plans,” a franchise source said.
In the wake of last season’s incident, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar proposed financial penalties for players leaving the tournament mid-way. However, it needs to be seen whether such a policy will be implemented ahead of the forthcoming editions.
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“We are open to all the suggestions from the franchises and based on those suggestions, we will discuss the road ahead,” a BCCI insider indicated.
Speaking to Sportstar in May, Dhumal had said that the BCCI has had good discussions with the ECB and was hopeful that such last-minute pull-outs won’t happen again in future. “A few people who had earlier committed to this aren’t with the ECB now, but ideally, even if there was a change of guard, things should have happened the way it was planned,” Dhumal had said, adding that the BCCI ‘will take the required corrective actions’ from its end going forward.
Ever since its inception in 2008, the overseas players have featured regularly in the tournament. Going forward, both the Board and the franchises want to ensure that such cases of players leaving the tournament mid-way aren’t repeated.
As per the agenda, the other points to be discussed are – player retention and right to match, salary cap, big auction, capped to uncapped players, player trading. Sportstar reported earlier that there will be discussions on the Impact Player rule as well along with those on IPL Gaming rights and IPL central merchandising.
