Former Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar opined on the Major League Cricket’s (MLC) quality drop after the end of the second edition recently. The Washington Freedom became the champions after defeating the San Francisco Unicorns at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Texas. Gavaskar was a part of the broadcast team that covered the tournament. However, he was disappointed with the quality of the event, despite the several reputed international players participating.
“For some reason, the crowds were not quite there this time around. Maybe it was viewer fatigue because of the ICC T20 World Cup preceding the tournament. The cricket was also not of the same high quality as last year. Maybe, because there were too many ordinary players there. The international stars who play in various T20 leagues around the world also seemed a little casual,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for The Sportstar.
“This makes one feel that while nobody wants the players’ source of income to be curbed, it is worth considering if players should be restricted to playing in, say, three leagues. The whole world agrees that the IPL is the best and most competitive tournament because of the talent pool it attracts from all over the world. So maybe a player should be restricted to the IPL and two other leagues of his choice,” he also stated.
However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) currently have a rule in place that only allows players to take part in a fixed number of overseas leagues apart from the Pakistan Super League (PSL). With the Major League Cricket having as many as three franchises backed by IPL franchise owners, there are instances of players playing for their sister teams as well.
“It is also a bit strange to see players who play for one franchise in the IPL playing for the team of another rival IPL franchise in the other leagues. It is perfectly understandable if the franchise they play for in the IPL does not have a team in the various countries’ T20 leagues, but it does seem odd to see them wearing the jersey of a rival IPL team franchise in the other leagues,” Sunil Gavaskar again added in his column.
