Former India cricketer turned cricket analyst Aakash Chopra has asked for some changes in the Indian Premier League (IPL) next season. He said that he wants to see five overseas players in the playing XI as well. However, his comments came as he believes the old franchises are likely to retain all their big Indian players before the mega auction next year, and the two new franchises might not have the advantage of acquiring good Indian players as well.
Notably, on Monday, the BCCI has announced industrialist Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG group and private equity fund CVC Capital Partners as the two new franchise owners of the Indian Premier League. While RPSG Group got the Lucknow franchise for ₹7,090 crore, CVC bought Ahmedabad for ₹5,625 crore as well.
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While speaking on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said: “Allow five overseas players in a playing XI in the IPL. Right now we have four and I think it dilutes the competition a bit. Five overseas players should be allowed to feature in a playing XI. Of course, franchises can field eleven Indians if they want, but I feel at least there should be the option of allowing five overseas cricketers to feature in the playing XI. Whether or not they play is a different matter altogether.”
He again shared: “If a particular franchise has not been able to pick too many good Indian players, this will come in handy. For example, if each team is allowed to retain three players ahead of the auction and all of them retain three Indian players each, that makes it a total of 24 Indian cricketers who will not be available for the auction. If so, from where will the two new teams pick good Indian players?”
He continued: “Obviously, nobody can stop the franchises from retaining players. So the new franchises may have money, but they might not be able to put together good teams due to lack of options. In such a case, these franchises can utilize more overseas players and build their Indian core gradually.”
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While no official confirmation has come yet, as per the reports, each existing IPL franchise can only retain three to four players in their new team as well. And, a mega auction will take place before next year’s IPL, where most of the players will go under the hammer and it will be interesting to see how all the team will look after the auction.
“This should be the last IPL mega auction for the next 5-6 years. After this, there should only be normal auctions for the next few years. The trade window can also be opened in between for the transfer of players. If there are too many big auctions, IPL as a brand is not going to grow. You want to associate players with their respective franchises. If players are not part of a team for a longer duration, you won’t invest in the players, nor can you maintain that loyalty,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
