Former Indian wicket-keeper Deep Dasgupta recently came up with the support to allow the Indian players for the foreign leagues without hampering the importance of the Indian domestic cricket.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) doesn’t allow their active Indian players to participate in the foreign T20 leagues, while most of the other national cricket boards have allowed some of their active players to participate in the foreign T20 leagues.
In recent times, some of the veteran Indian cricketers have strongly wished to experience the foreign leagues and have requested to the BCCI to allow them for the foreign leagues.
Deep Dasgupta feels that the BCCI should allow their players to participate in the foreign leagues. However, he also added that the contracted players shouldn’t be allowed for the foreign leagues as their priority should be India’s domestic cricket during their off-period in international cricket.
In a recent interview on Sports Tiger’s YouTube show ‘Off the Field’, Dasgupta said, “My point is that you should let them go. But there have to be few caveats attached to it. One of them according to me is that anyone who has played international cricket in the last two years or is a contracted player, they shouldn’t be allowed. Because they are contracted and are in the India scene, you want them to play domestic cricket when they are not playing international cricket. That’s my point of view.”
From an IPL perspective, there needs to be a capping on how much a domestic cricketer can get: Deep Dasgupta
Dasgupta also feels that the BCCI should set the upper salary limit for the domestic cricketers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction. According to him, the IPL salaries shouldn’t discourage domestic cricket, rather than the excess amount of the bidding can be distributed among the first-class cricketers.
Dasgupta claimed, “Secondly, from an IPL perspective, there needs to be a capping on how much a domestic cricketer can get. Because the other important aspect you need to think about is that there has to be some parity between a first-class cricketer, who plays a very important aspect in the 3-4 months of domestic cricket, his payment and somebody who plays IPL and plays T20 outside India. The excess amount in the bidding, lets say you put the limit at 1.5 CR, goes in a kitty which is later distributed among the first-class cricketers.”
Dasgupta also defended the senior cricketers’ demands to participate in the foreign leagues.
He added, “That allows a lot of senior cricketers, who are still out there playing cricket seriously, to explore other shores but you also encourage the younger lot to not only think about T20 cricket but also first-class cricket.”
Deep Dasgupta, who played eight Tests and five ODIs for the Indian team from 2001 and 2002, experienced nine recognised T20s.