Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar wants the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to have stricter rules and punishments in place for the overseas stars who pull out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) despite being picked in the auction. The 1983 World Cup-winner remarked days after Ben Duckett, the England opener, pulled out of the IPL 2026 edition. The left-handed batter was slated to play for the Delhi Capitals. Still, just days before the first game of the tournament, he announced on social media that he would not travel to India, as he wanted to focus on his international career.
Duckett was picked by the Capitals for INR 2 crore. However, the 31-year-old endured a horrendous Ashes 2025-26 campaign, scoring just 202 runs in 10 innings. To make matters worse, Duckett was also found inebriated during the team’s Noosa trip. Now, ahead of the upcoming Tests against New Zealand, Duckett has prioritised playing the County Championship over the IPL.
With this call, Duckett is now set to be banned from the IPL for the next two years, just like his white-ball captain Harry Brook. However, Gavaskar feels that this punishment has been unable to stop last-minute withdrawals, and it’s time for the BCCI to come up with something stricter and harsher.
“It is a tough one. Clearly, Ben Duckett had a very good Ashes series, and if he had not been bought for the amount he was at The Hundred auction, maybe things would have been different. One can understand that, having been bought at a very good price in The Hundred, he was probably quite happy to miss this and say he wants to focus on his England Test career,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“But yes, what should be done is something for the BCCI to think about as well, because a two-year ban is obviously not working. You have to look at something that will have an impact. As long as it’s not having an impact on the player and his chances of coming back to the IPL, it won’t work,” he added.
‘Don’t know’
However, when asked what should the punishment be, Gavaskar did not have a clear answer. How he gave the example of slow over-rate penalties during matches and how the penalty has a real-time affect.
“I don’t know. I am not on the governing council. I haven’t thought about it. Like for example, every time, when we talk about penalising, when you talk about penalising teams bowling slowly, by having another fielder inside the 30 metre circle rather than outside, that is a penalty that can have an impact on the game,” said Gavaskar.
“That’s a very effective penalty. Bowlers and fielders would want to move very fast because they want all five fielders outside the 30m circle for the last few overs. So, I think you need some sort of penalty that can have an impact. That has to affect the individual player. So, I don’t know how that happens, but it is clearly something BCCI have to sit down and think about,” he added.
Earlier, Gavaskar was also critical of Australian pace trio of Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins missing the initial few games of the IPL 2026 season owing to workload management. However, both Cummins and Hazlewood have landed in India and linked up with their respective squads. Starc on Saturday confirmed that he’s carrying an injury and will link with the Delhi team once he recovers.
