Multiple experts and former cricketers said BCCI needs to let Indians play in foreign T20 leagues.
Currently, the BCCI doesn’t allow any of its contracted and domestic cricketers to play in any other foreign T20 leagues. The players are only allowed to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and if any player aspires to play in any other T20 league, they have to retire from domestic cricket and the IPL as well.
On the contrary, the likes of Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, and Adil Rashid - three of England’s top performers in Australia as they became the world champions - have experience playing in the Big Bash League something that put them in good stead during the showpiece event.
Former India captain and coach Anil Kumble was one of those who advocated that Indian players should get exposure by playing in foreign T20 leagues.
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However, Ravi Shastri and Zaheer Khan think otherwise reasoning that the Indian cricketers play enough cricket domestically and in the Indian Premier League.
“There is enough domestic cricket for all these players to get absorbed in the system and get an opportunity. Plus, you get these India A tours, you get a lot of these other tours, where at one given time you might have two Indian teams playing in the future, where the opportunity will come for the other lot to go somewhere else whilst India is in another country - to go play and see what you know they can do.
So there’s no need [to play in overseas leagues], they’re absolutely fine playing IPL cricket and focusing on domestic cricket. We need them to play domestic cricket in India as well,” Ravi Shastri told reporters during an interaction facilitated by Prime Video.
Former India pacer Zaheer Khan said that India has a robust domestic structure and pointed out that BCCI ensures its players get a hang of overseas conditions through the shadow tours and sees no reason for playing in a ‘particular tournament’.
“I feel there are a lot of processes in place. It’s not about playing only franchise cricket, it’s about going to different countries to learn things. That is something which is important, and you’ve seen with BCCI, with their shadow tours, I think those processes are well in place.
I don’t see any other reason right now for players to go and play in a particular tournament. What you have domestically right now is also a robust structure. So why depend on others? We have more than enough means for producing good players. And you look at our bench strength as well, you can virtually play three line-ups, and they will be able to compete at any level,” Zaheer Khan said.
The next ICC event is the ODI World Cup in India in 2023 and the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA in 2024.
(Prime Video inputs)