KKR CEO Venky Mysore has recently come out and stated his opinion regarding the involvement and participation of Indian players in foreign T20 leagues.
Venky has successfully managed KKR over the years and is one of the prime reasons behind KKR's success. Venky has voiced his opinion despite BCCI being strong on its its players not participating in overseas T20 leagues. Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Mysore said if the rule was relaxed it would be beneficial for Indian cricket.
“There are at least 22-25 players sitting on the bench of franchises at any time who are capable of doing very well if they were given an opportunity. Obviously, they are not getting chances,” he said.
“If those types of emerging players with immense potential are allowed to go out and play, they might play one tournament and suddenly you discover someone and say 'Wow!'. That will benefit Indian cricket in the short and medium and long run. I'm definitely someone who advocates that.”
Mysore also spoke about how a middle ground needs to be reached between the board and franchises, saying, “I've had several conversations around the subject and it's important to understand the other side of the perspective, which is that by allowing players to go out, where do you draw the line? Recently, some news has come out that the ICC intend to restrict it to three T20 tournaments for every player."
“The balance that needs to be achieved is, how does one also make sure that the windowing is appropriate and optimal so that the domestic cricket season doesn't get affected in any shape or form. After all, huge amounts of investments have gone in by the boards to build infrastructure and build the systems which cricketers come through, and we have all benefited from that in the auction while picking up our teams.”
Venky moreover has voiced his opinion regarding the IPL bidding process moving into a draft system. “I think the time has come (to move to a draft). Frankly, there have been some conversations offline between franchisees and a couple of us who have been talking about this for a while. It may be appropriate to move away from an auction system now. It was necessary to maintain a level-playing field (in 2008) and everyone was learning on the fly."
“After eleven seasons, every franchise has figured out how to build and run a franchise. Each one has their own style, that's different. But to be able to maintain continuity, connect with the city, connect with the fans, I think it's important to get away from the big auction idea, where everybody goes back and tries to rebuild."
“Rather than that, having some kind of a combination of a draft system and trading and even a loan system like the one introduced this year. All of this will help in empowering franchises to fine-tune and build, while maintaining continuity."
Venky's concerns regarding Indian players participating in foreign T20I leagues speaks of how passionate he is regarding the game and also of someone who is on a constant drive to improve the complexion of Indian cricket in the world stage.
(Inputs from Cricketnext)
