While the Indian Premier League (IPL) is unarguably the most attractive T20 cricket league in the world, there are other lucrative events too like the Big Bash League, The Hundred, Mzansi Super League and more. Although India’s cricketing calendar hardly allows any contracted player to feature in overseas tournaments like these, the situation is such that even non-contracted players aren’t able to feature in foreign T20 events. Unlike the players from the rest of the nations, however, Indian players aren’t allowed to participate in overseas leagues for as long as they are available to play international cricket under the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Veteran batsman Robin Uthappa has urged the BCCI to change this ruling and allow players to participate in overseas leagues.
“Please let us go, honest to God,” Uthappa told the BBC as he pleaded the BCCI to change this ruling. “It does hurt when we’re not allowed to go and play … It would be so nice if we could go and play at least a couple of others because as a student of the game you want to learn and grow as much as you can.”
Hopeful of some big changes in Indian cricket under the presidency of Sourav Ganguly, Uthappa expressed optimism that the new BCCI chief will help resolve this concern of his and many other non-contracted players.
“Ganguly is a very progressive thinking human being, someone who has always looked to take India to the next level. He actually laid the foundation for where India cricket is now,” said Uthappa. “We’re hoping that he will look at this at some point.”
Earlier, another veteran Indian player, Suresh Raina, had urged the BCCI to allow non-contracted players to feature in foreign leagues.
