BCCI not to intervene over foreign player availability in IPL
The BCCI has no plans to act as a bridge between overseas players and their respective teams over their availability for the IPL despite concerns being raised by franchises in the recently concluded edition.
The BCCI has a ban in place for foreign recruits who pull out of the tournament after being bought in the auction but player availability over the two-month long IPL still remains an issue. The likes of Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc were not available for the first half of the tournament due to niggles. Delhi Capitals were adversely impacted by Starc’s absence in the first half. After their play-offs campaign, Rajasthan Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara had expressed his frustration over Sam Curran playing the T20 back home in the UK after ruling himself out of the IPL due to an injury.
Punjab Kings co-owner Mohit Burman had said that BCCI and other boards need to align better on availability of foreign recruits.
“We were told that Sam Curran had a season-ending injury, but I think I saw him playing for Surrey for two or three games now. So that was disappointing,” Sangakkara had said.
However, BCCI feels the contentious issue needs to be sorted between the player and his franchise as “they are the custodians of the players.”
The Board also thinks the two-year ban in place for last minute withdrawal is a strong enough deterrent and the players are free to make their individual choice in consultation with the franchise. To put things in perspective, Archer made himself available for the entire tournament despite the ECB wanting to manage his workload, PTI has learned. No need for massive hike in auction purse. The current auction stands at Rs 125 crore but the players’ contracts still can’t compare to the ones in European football or NFL.
The BCCI is open to a gradual increase in the future but is against a significant hike. It fears that more money at teams’ disposal can lead to irrational bidding, like it happened in the case of Chris Morris back in 2021 when he became the league’s costliest recruit at the time. It is worth mentioning that the players get match fees also (Rs 7. 5 lakh per game) and get additional sponsorship during the tournament over and above their contractual fee.
Post 2027, starting early in March best option
The BCCI plans to increase the number of games from 74 to 94 from the 2028 season onwards and that would require a bigger window.
As per BCCI sources, the best window is from the first week of March till mid of May. The 2026 edition began at the end of March and the final was played on May 31.
The media rights will be up for renewal post the 2027 cycle and that would be the time all stakeholders will need to see the feasibility of bilateral series going forward.
Most Test-playing nations have their own T20 leagues and they are not entirely dependent on hosting an India series like it used to be earlier. The broadcaster is already not seeing value in some of the bilateral series being played.
The recent one-off Test between India and Afghanistan was played in front of near-empty stands.
