Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) wants to tighten the retirement policy for cricketers who want to play overseas T20 leagues.
During the board’s Apex Council meeting on Thursday, it was discussed that a five-year bar should be enforced on returning to playing in India for those who retire to participate in a league outside the BCCI framework.
This cooling-off period would be brought down to a year if they have not played anywhere, it is learnt. “The idea is to send a message to the players to be sure of their decision. Modalities will be worked out before rules are framed, looking at all parameters,” said a BCCI official.
Interestingly, around the time when BCCI officials were locked in online discussions, Indian wicket-keeper KS Bharat, 32, announced his international retirement on social media. Bharat played seven Tests including the 2023 World Test Championship final against Australia. In his statement, Bharat didn’t mention retiring from the IPL, a mandatory pre-requisite to play in leagues outside India.
Vijay Shankar had done that when he called it a day from all forms of international cricket as well as the IPL last month. Shankar, 35, who played 12 ODIs and 9 T20Is for India, has signed up to play in next month’s Lanka Premier League.
Last year, spin legend R Ashwin had signed up with Sydney Thunder in Australia’s Big Bash League, but couldn’t play because of injury. This was after India’s second highest Test wicket-taker retired from international cricket as well and IPL aged 38.
There have been discussions before at BCCI meetings to prevent players from taking early retirement to earn from foreign leagues. Reservations were also expressed regarding the trend of retired players participating in legends leagues. But without legal backing, BCCI stopped short of taking action.
BCCI is the only cricket board that bars its active players from participating in any T20 league that competes with the IPL. The IPL is comfortably the highest paid league in the game.
