Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar believes the salaries of uncapped players at the IPL mega auction must be capped at INR 1 crore in a bid to keep the young ones grounded and ensure they don’t become overnight millionaires. His comments came a couple of days ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction.
The legendary batsman believes youngsters becoming rich within a night can have a negative impact in the long run. Gavaskar further reckoned that in no case should success at age-level cricket be considered a guarantee of succeeding at the international level or the IPL owing to the significant difference of standard of cricket played.
In a column for Mid Day, Sunil Gavaskar wrote:
“The mega auction will happen over the weekend and some of our Under-19 boys could become crorepatis in a few blinks of the eye. Doing well at the under-19 level doesn’t guarantee success at the IPL or even international level as has been seen over the years. The difference in standards is huge.”
He added:
“Far too many get carried away and lose focus and are out of the game or seek the mirage of greener-looking pastures. The fair thing would be to put a limit of say R1 crore for uncapped players so that they know that to go further and earn more they have a lot of hard work ahead.
“Easy money has spoilt many a promising talent and that’s something the administrators can prevent by ensuring that an uncapped player remains eager to keep performing year after year and not fall by the wayside as so many have done in the past.”
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Sunil Gavaskar has proposed to bring a salary cap for uncapped Indian cricketers. He had earlier written letters to BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and IPL chairman Brijesh Patel.
Meanwhile, the IPL 2022 auction is scheduled to take place on February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru.
