Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has expressed that players getting more money in the Indian Premier League is limiting their ambitions. He was talking about some players struggling with ‘second-season’ syndrome in the 2022 edition.
In the previous IPL, the likes of Venkatesh Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Varun Chakravarthy managed to make a name for themselves. However, this year they failed to make a greater impact this season.
Writing for Mid-day, Sunil Gavaskar expressed that the 2022 season has thrown up a few names who can make it big. However, he added that a player should be analyzed for at least a couple of years to see if “he is the real thing”. Gavaskar wrote,
“That said, it’s also been seen how many of the first season stars fade away very quickly, proving the old saying ‘a flash in the pan’ absolutely right. The names are too many to reel off and they include guys who have scored a hundred or taken wickets and scored runs in the knockout stages of the tournament and that’s why it is always better to wait till their next season to find out if he is the real thing or just another false dawn.”
The former cricketer also wrote that many players fall for the second season syndrome. However, the ones who bounce back make a good career. He wrote,
“The second season syndrome hardly spares anybody and if the player can come back after that, then there’s a good chance that he will have a good career ahead of him. Of course, many an IPL star remains a T20 specialist and doesn’t feature much on the domestic circuit. Many of them are quite happy to do that as they get more money playing the IPL than the domestic circuit and so are quite content to be limited in their ambitions. Once again, these are a fair few so Indian cricket doesn’t really gain much from that.”
There’s been an exciting batch of speedsters: Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar also expressed his say about the Indian pace bowling unit, which has emerged in the last few years. He stated that it is exciting to watch a good fast bowler making the batters duck, and trouble them.
“This time, there’s been an exciting batch of speedsters who have made the batsmen duck and weave and got the ball to thud hard into the wicketkeeper’s gloves. True, the pitches have had a fair covering of grass and that has helped them to get the carry that they otherwise wouldn’t have found, but still, the sight of a good fast bowler is probably more exciting than a batting prodigy,” wrote Gavaskar.
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