Sunil Gavaskar has criticised England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) decision to recall their T20 World Cup-bounce stars from the ongoing IPL 2024 in India for a home series against Pakistan. Gavaskar feels that if overseas players aren’t ready to make themselves available for a full IPL season then they need to handed salary cuts along with their respective cricket boards.
Gavaskar’s comments have come after ECB announced their world cup squad earlier this month while adding that those picked for the T20 showpiece must return before the series gets underway from May 22. The league stage of IPL 2024 will end on May 19 and the playoffs get underway from May 21.
A host of IPL contenders could thus be without their key English stars for the playoffs including Rajasthan Royals (Jos Buttler), Kolkata Knight Riders (Phil Salt), Chennai Super Kings (Moeen Ali) among others.
Gavaskar says he supports players prioritising country but if there is an agreement for their availability for an entire IPL season, then it’s unfair on their part to backtrack later on.
“I am all for players choosing country before anything else but having assured various franchises about their availability for the full season, if they pull out now, it will be letting down the franchises which probably pay them more money in one IPL season which they don’t earn in a few seasons with their country,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-day.
“The franchises should not only be allowed to deduct a substantial amount from the fee that the player was bought for, but also not give the Board, to which the player belongs, the stated 10 per cent commission of the fee that each player gets,” he added.
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Gavaskar claims that the foreign boards getting commission from a T20 league is unique to IPL.
“If the Board has gone back on its assurance they need to be penalised too. By the way, this 10 per cent commission to the Boards happens only in the IPL and nowhere else. Does the BCCI get any thanks for its generosity? Ha ha ha. No way,” he wrote.
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