Ashwin will take on the dual role of captain and mentor for the Dublin Guardians in the inaugural edition of ETPL.
Legendary India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will take on the dual role of captain and mentor for the Dublin Guardians in the inaugural edition of the European T20 Premier League (ETPL). The franchise is owned by legendary former Indian captain and World Cup-winning coach Rahul Dravid.
During a media interaction on Thursday (July 2), Ashwin highlighted the T20 format's role in globalising cricket. He noted that while T20 cricket is here to stay, he remained highly skeptical about the long-term survival of ODI cricket.
With cricket returning to the Olympics in 2028, he expressed confidence that ETPL will act as a catalyst in making the sport global.
"Look, I think there's an Olympics that's going to happen in a couple of years. And if cricket as a game is pretty serious about making it a global affair, the teams in this league will play a very crucial part in enabling that," said Ashwin in his response to a PTI query.
"Our job will be purely on T20 cricket and how it can get better. And if the game has to become global and it has to become an Olympic sport, the shorter the game, the more viable it is," he added.
"And that's how it's going to become much bigger. And you will see a better sample size of players, which is also very critical for several of these leagues which run through the year. T20 as a sport is here to stay. I'm not too sure about ODI cricket," he stated.
As the captain and mentor of Dublin Guardians, Ashwin aims to grow Irish, Scottish, and Dutch cricket by giving local players top-tier exposure.
"So, as far as I'm concerned, this is a really, really exciting prospect where we not only believe that we can pick a team and do well in this tournament and also make it a really good place for these players to come in and get better and also have a lasting impact on the tournament," Ashwin said.
"We owe it to the Dublin franchise and also Irish cricket in many ways, try and enable them, try and probably provide them with the right amount of exposure and opportunities.
"We want to make it about them. And that's something that we were very clear the first day Rahul (Dravid as team owner) and I spoke about it.
"And we will stay very true to that particular formula. And we will put up a culture where cricket is played in a fashion that everyone wants to grow at least by one person every single day," he explained.
Ashwin highlighted a critical reality of modern cricket, pointing out that adaptation is the defining factor and conditions can even out contests as one saw in the recent T20I series where India lost 0-2 to Ireland.
"You should be able to adapt. The name of the game is adaptation, which is why what happened recently between India and Ireland in that T20 series is a classic example of how conditions can eliminate a lot of aspects of the game that have been developed as a root cause of T20 as a sport."
Former Australian captain Steve Waugh is co-owning the Amsterdam Flames in the newly formed ETPL. While the primary is to put a spotlight on overlooked European talent, Waugh hoped to attract England T20 stars in the coming years.
"Well, it wasn't my choice for that (top English players not being part). And yeah, it'd be nice to have English players there, perhaps sometime in the future," said Waugh.
"But we're looking at developing players in Europe that haven't had the big opportunities in the past. They really haven't been able to showcase their skills. And this is what this tournament's about.
"It'd be good to have England have more of a presence in the league. Hopefully, once it's established, obviously, it's starting in about eight weeks' time, everybody will see how great this competition is going to be, the quality, the players, the standard," he concluded.
(With PTI Inputs)