Sunil Gavaskar has talked on the flak that the IPL has been receiving due to its growing control in the international cricket calendar.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) may get a dedicated two and half month exclusive window from the next Futures Tours and Programme (FTP) calender of the ICC starting 2024, according to several reports. If that happens, it will be another validation of the growing impact of the T20 franchise league, which is the richest cricket tournament in the world. Also in recent times, several IPL team owners have invested in sides at the United Arab Emirates T20 league and the South African T20 League.
Recently, reports emerged that David Warner might opt out of the upcoming Big Bash League (BBL) this season and sign up for a more lucrative United Arab Emirates T20 league. In backdrop of it, former Australian cricket team player Adam Gilchrist talked about the global dominance of IPL.
“They can’t force David Warner to play in BBL, I understand that, but to let him then go off – or another player, let’s not single out Warner because there will be other players on the radar – it’s all part of this global dominance that these IPL franchises are starting to create given they own a number of teams in Caribbean Premier League,” Gilchrist told SEN’s Whateley radio show. “It’s getting a little bit dangerous the grip that it’s having to monopolise that ownership and the ownership of the players and their talents and where they can and can’t play.”
Now, former Indian cricket team captain Sunil Gavaskar has talked on the flak that the IPL has been receiving due to its growing control.
“It’s been amusing to read that the Indian Premier League is once again seen as a disruptor of the cricketing calendar of other international teams. The moment the news about the South African T20 league and the UAE T20 league came out, the ‘old powers’ started squirming and got their apologists to have a go at the IPL,” Gavaskar wrote in his column on Sportstar.
“The IPL has got a 75-day window in the international calendar and that’s simply because, thankfully, there are some administrators who can read the tea leaves and know it’s better to let their players play in the cricket world’s richest league than hold them back with some international commitments.”
Gavaskar also touched upon Indian cricket’s business impact at a global level.
“It was only after the other cricketing boards finally realised that being invited to the MCC President’s box was not helping them promote their cricket and new administrators, who didn’t have any inferiority complexes, came in that India started getting tours at regular four-year intervals. Now these same old powers want India to come to their shores every year because they have understood that the Indian team brings in more moolah than even when they play against each other,” Gavaskar wrote.
“So, by all means, look after your cricket interests but hey please don’t interfere in ours and tell us what to do. We will look after our interests and do it better than what you tell us to do.”