Sachin Tendulkar, legendary Indian cricketer and 2013 IPL winner, has shared some suggestions and reforms for the betterment of the Indian Premier League and T20 cricket in general. Tendulkar played for the Mumbai Indians from 2008 to 2013 and was the first Indian batter to win the Orange Cap for most runs and the Most Valuable Player award, both in 2010.
Tendulkar attended the ESPNcricinfo awards for the greatest international cricketers of the 21st century, where he was named the best batter of the 21st century and came in second for the greatest international cricketers list, behind Jacques Kallis.
The great man stated that he wanted some balance between bat and ball to return to the IPL and, to that end, wants to see the impact player rule done away with.
"I feel there are a few things which, on a personal note that I can say, I think the impact player needs to go away. I feel that when in a T20 format, you just have to play 20 overs, and then you are adding one more batter to that line-up. Where bowlers are already being challenged, I find that imbalance,” Tendulkar stated at the ESPNCricinfo awards.
The impact player rule was introduced in IPL in 2023,whicht allows teams to swap one player out of their XIs and bring in another player from a list of five decided before the toss. The major criticism of the rule is that it has given batters more freedom to go for runs, resulting in rising scoring rates and team totals over the past two to three seasons.
In reality, Tendulkar had two further recommendations to address the perceived bat-ball imbalance at the IPL. First, divide the powerplay into bowlers' and hitters' portions. Additionally, each innings has five overs for a single bowler.
"[In] the powerplay of six overs with field restrictions, only two fielders are allowed outside the ring. Let the first four overs be the batters' powerplay with the same field restrictions, and post that, the remaining two powerplay overs should be determined by the fielding captain as and when he wants to take. Those two consecutive overs will also get one fielder extra outside the ring at any stage of the game. So, you [the fielding side] are able to control the game better,” Tendulkar stated.
"One bowler should be allowed to bowl five overs. Because invariably, the best bowler of the side is going to bowl that fifth over. Wouldn't you want to see the best bowler bowl more? The top batters are batting sometimes even 20 overs. Why shouldn't the best bowler be bowling five overs?” Tendulkar revealed his final remedial measure.
