Former Indian cricketers do not support the idea of playing other T20 leagues across the world than the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the current Indian cricketers. They believe the cricket giant and cash-rich league IPL fulfil all the obligations, leaving no need to play in other tournaments.
Apart from some of the cricketers, many cricket experts assume that featuring in different T20 leagues around the world will help Indians to gain exposure to various playing conditions. Since they have been failing in big ICC tournaments, specifically in the T20 World Cup, it has been determined that more than a decade-old IPL has not yet helped out.
Zaheer Khan, the ex-Indian cricketer, believes that playing India's vast domestic cricket is more than enough, which leaves no need behind to play in other leagues. Where players from all over the world are featured in several t20 leagues, including BBL, PSL, and others, Indians are only limited to the IPL.
The argument was more hyped after India failed to reach the ICC t20 World Cup final, losing to England in the semifinal by ten wickets. However, as per Zaheer,
“I feel there are a lot of processes in place. It’s not about playing only franchise cricket; it’s about going to different countries to learn things. That is something which is important, and you’ve seen with BCCI, with their shadow tours; I think those processes are well in place,”
“I don’t see any other reason right now for players to go and play in a particular tournament. What you have domestically right now is also a robust structure. So why depend on others? We have more than enough means to produce good players. And you look at our bench strength as well, you can virtually play three line-ups, and they will be able to compete at any level.”
Meanwhile, Ravi Shastri, the former coach of the men in blue, is also of the same views. He said,
“There is enough domestic cricket for all these players to get absorbed in the system and get an opportunity. Plus, you get these India A tours, and you get a lot of these other tours, where at one given time, you might have two Indian teams playing in the future, where the opportunity will come for the other lot to go somewhere else whilst India is in another country – to go play and see what you know they can do.
“So there’s no need [to play in overseas leagues]; they’re absolutely fine playing IPL cricket and focusing on domestic cricket. We need them to play domestic cricket in India as well.”
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