Dr. Harry Harinath, a former Cricket Australia (CA) director. Requested the BCCI to release Indian players for the Big Bash League (BBL) in 2010. CA wanted for each BBL side to include at least one Indian cricketer.
Dr Harinath, a former chairman of New South Wales Cricket. Has even gone so far as to request Rohit Sharma for the Sydney Thunders squad. He is mention in the Sydney Morning Herald as stating the following:
“If you (recruited) two Indian and two Sri Lankan players it’d be fantastic for the Sydney Thunder. No matter who they signed — MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma or whoever — it doesn’t really matter, it’d do wonders for them.”
Dr. Harinath
The BCCI anticipated the coming reality of allowing Indian players to compete in the BBL. Or any other overseas competition for that matter. It believed that Indian involvement in abroad leagues. It would result in more viewers in India and a greater media rights value, it would be a self-defeating move.
The general consensus
The Indian Premier League (IPL) founders then proposed that the BCCI enact a resolution prohibiting Indian players. From playing in abroad competitions and prohibiting IPL franchises from playing friendly overseas games among themselves. A demand made by the teams at the time. Instead, the BCCI stated that the teams might play with the Associate nations.
“I remember the proposal, and it was in the interest of Indian cricket,”
Prof Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s insightful former administrator
That was the beginning point for the BCCI’s stance of no other leagues. The BBL was the IPL’s sole competition at the time. As new leagues sprouted, the subsequent BCCI administrations did more soul-searching. Not only Harinath advocated for the inclusion of Indian players in the BBL. Adam Gilchrist recently made a similar remark, which gathered traction following India’s elimination from the upcoming T20 World Cup quarterfinals.
The general consensus here is that if Indian players compete with international players in other competitions, the IPL’s dominance, which pays out significant sums of money to both Indian and foreign players, might be diminished. This is especially noticeable in the present scenario of IPL franchises purchasing clubs in other leagues, with the theory being that Indian players in SA20 or ILT20, particularly in the former, would appear to be a miniature version of the IPL. To emphasize the point, Indian players have the ability to lure sponsors who would not otherwise support Indian cricket.
Furthermore, the total prize in most competitions would be less than or similar to the wage of a top IPL player, implying that the international event would not be a big draw for Indian cricket’s top-line. The second or third-tier players may be given places but not necessarily opportunities to play, thereby undermining the entire case for enabling Indian players to participate in abroad tournaments. In the ILT20, for example, the player purse is USD 2.5 million, whereas in the SA20, it is USD 2 million. The overall purse in other competitions, such as the BBL, PSL, and CPL, is much lower.
Is it all about Indian domestic cricket or the IPL money?
The policy is create at a period when the notion of professional workload management did not exist. The BCCI sought to keep the players safe from overexposure and injury. Furthermore, the administrators wished to protect the interests of the country’s domestic cricket, which serves as a feeder line for international cricket.
“The thing is it’s right in the middle of our season, and with the kind of demand, there would be for Indian players, if you allowed all the Indian players to play in these leagues, we would not have domestic cricket. Our domestic trophy, our Ranji Trophy would be finished, and that would mean Test cricket would be finished.”
Rahul Dravid said
“I am very happy the way Rahul has put it. He is 100 per cent correct. You can’t allow our players to play all over the world at the cost of domestic cricket,”
Prof Shetty
The time of other leagues is also an important consideration. Their schedules mainly conflict with the domestic season, during which the BCCI hosts approximately 2500 games. Already, the major guns are either too busy or find a means to avoid domestic games; for example, stand-in ODI skipper Shikhar Dhawan played only one Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy game. The BCCI cannot afford to have the second-liners miss the domestic season as well.
