Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Arun Dhumal has responded to former Mumbai Indians (MI) captain and senior batter Rohit Sharma’s criticism of the impact player rule which was implemented in the ongoing IPL 2024 tournament.
The impact player rule allows the franchises to name five substitute players in addition to their starting XI before a match.
After the contest has begun, the leaders of both sides may propose any of these five substitutes to replace one of the starting XI players during any of the match's natural breaks. These include the beginning of an innings, the end of an over, the fall of a wicket, and when a batter departs.
But if a bowling side brings on an impact player after the fall of a wicket or in the event of a batter retiring in the middle of an over, the incoming substitute cannot bowl the remaining balls of that over.
The impact player can bowl his full quota of four overs irrespective of how many overs the player he is replacing has bowled before getting substituted.
Rohit Sharma had recently shared his dislike for the impact player rule, explaining how it is hampering the role of an all-rounder in cricket.
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"I am not a big fan of Impact sub rule. It is going to hold all-rounders back, eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12 players. You are taking out so much from the game to make it entertaining for people around. If you look just from the cricketing aspect of it I feel guys like Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar aren't getting to bowl, which for us is not a good thing," Rohit had said on 'Club Prairie Fire' podcast.
"I don't know what you can do about it. There are 12 players for you, it is entertaining, and you can bring on the impact player after watching how the game is going, and how the pitch is behaving. If you bat well and you don't lose wickets, you can add another bowler, it gives you an option of six or seven bowlers. You don't require that extra batter because a lot of teams are batting well up front and you hardly see a No 7 or No 8 coming to bat," he had explained.
There has been criticism from other quarters as well for this particular rule, and now IPL chairman Arun Dhumal has said that the management is open to reviewing the rule once the ongoing IPL season is over.
"Now that such an observation has been made, we will definitely look into it. We will discuss this with all parties involved and then take a call. There are various pros and cons to any rule that is in place. We are open to any discussion once the season gets over... nothing is cast in stone about its implementation,” Dhumal told The Telegraph on Friday.
