Former India player Aakash Chopra has asked for the inclusion of five overseas players in playing XIs in the Indian Premier League (IPL). As per him, since the old franchises are likely to retain big Indian players before the mega auction next year, the two new franchises might not be left with good Indian players to select as well.
However, on Monday, the BCCI announced industrialist Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG group and private equity fund CVC Capital Partners as the two owners of the new franchises of the Indian Premier League. While RPSG Group bought the Lucknow franchise for ₹7,090 crores, CVC grabbed Ahmedabad for ₹5,625 crores 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.”
Elaborating on how the rules for the overseas cricketer in the playing XI should work with new IPL franchises, Chopra said. “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?”
“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,” he continued.
“This should be the last IPL mega auction for the next 5-6 years” – Aakash Chopra
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However, nothing is official yet, and as per the reports, each existing IPL franchise can only retain three to four players as well. And, a mega auction will take place prior to next year’s IPL, where most of the players will go under the hammer once again. And, Aakash Chopra shared his views about this as well.
“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,” he concluded.
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