IPL Franchises Recommend 2-year Ban on Overseas Players

The IPL franchises have recommended a two-year ban on overseas players should they make themselves unavailable for the season after being bought at the auction without legitimate cause.

They have also told the IPL to make it mandatory for overseas players to register for the mega auction and not just enter mini-auctions anticipating potentially large price tags.

All ten franchises agreed on those two points during their meeting with the IPL on Wednesday.

Many IPL teams have been hurt by overseas players pulling out on the eve of a new season citing personal reasons.

They pointed out that such late pullouts have a detrimental effect on team performance because strategies are devised keeping these overseas names in mind and their sudden unavailability leaves the franchises scrambling to find replacements from a much shallower pool of international talent.

The franchises told the IPL they could understand if the player’s board was pulling him out to honour an international commitment, or if he has suffered an injury, or has family commitments that render him incapable of joining the squad.

They were happy to make these allowances so long as there was clarity at the time of the auction about the player’s availability during the IPL season.