Ab De Villiers, the former wicket-keeper batter and South Africa captain has expressed that he was never a big fan of the Indian Premier League (IPL) ‘s ‘impact player rule’, which has been extended until the 2027 season of the tournament. Many former players and a few of those who are still enjoying the league have been locally against the use of this card.
Growing voices, like Ab De Villiers, have shown their concern, reckoning that the rule is massively supporting the batters and slowly killing the impact of the all-rounders. Players like India’s T20 World Cup-winning captain Rohit Sharma, the former leader of the side Virat Kohli, or the ex-Proteas batter Jonty Rhodes, who is engaged in the coaching department of the league, have voiced against the same.
The ‘impact player rule’ was first introduced in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the domestic T20 competition for India, where both the teams will offer their playing eleven and four extra players at the toss. Among those four options, they could use any player at any point in time during the 40-overs.
“I have never found the impact player rule to be exciting”- Ab de Villiers
This has led to many teams using an extra batter in the side when they have struggled in the department, losing early wickets, while a few times, an extra bowler was used by the end of the batting innings, which somehow has demolished the contributions of the all-rounders. They have, of late, become a rare commodity in India, and this rule has future destroyed them in participating in the IPL.
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This has now raised the question if it would be logical to put the players under pressure for the sake of instantaneous entertainment. When asked if the rule should be introduced in the SA20, Ab de Villiers also expressed that he had no interest in the rule.
“I’ve never been a big fan, to be honest, and I did speak about it at the IPL last season. I feel it’s a bit confusing, it also puts a bit of pressure on the all-rounders and their role in the teams.” The former batter of the Royal Challenger Bengaluru (RCB) franchise informed during a live session on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Ab De Villiers revealed that it generally looks in a better shape from the outside, but when the game takes place, it becomes a bit boring. However, he felt that the administrations could think of using the rule if they found it good enough to have.
“From the outside, it looks exciting, but when the game takes place, I’ve never found it to be, a good thing to have in cricket. So, I mean, you can try it out. And the SA20, they’ve always been open to new ideas and new rules, which I find good.” Ab de Villiers highlighted.
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Like Ab de Villers, Rohit also mentioned that he would never be a big fan of the ‘impact player rule’ because it takes out so much from the game just to make it a little entertainment for the people around. But, on the basics of the game’s aspect, it doesn’t benefit at all.
The 2025 edition of the SA20 will return with some promising action from January 09, as the opening game of the event will see the two-time defending champions, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, led by Aiden Markram, taking on Rashid Khan’s MI Cape Town at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth.