England batsman Ben Duckett has found himself in big trouble as Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has demanded the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to bring strict punishment for players who withdraw from the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the last minute.
The controversy escalated after Ben Duckett withdrew from IPL 2026 a few days before the start of the season. Delhi Capitals signed the England opener for Rs 2 crore after a poor performance in the Ashes 2025-26, where he could only score 202 runs in 10 innings.
Ben Duckett shocked Delhi Capitals
Duckett was also caught in an embarrassing off-field incident during the Noosa trip, and now he wanted to show his commitment to England, so he announced that he would be skipping IPL 2026 to focus on county cricket and the upcoming Test series against New Zealand.
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His decision has automatically put him under a two-year IPL ban, joining Harry Brook, yet Gavaskar feels that even this rule is not strict enough and he wants the BCCI to introduce far more stringent consequences for such moves in order to maintain the sovereignty of the tournament.
The great Sunil Gavaskar believes that the current two-year ban rule is no longer enough, especially with many big foreign names backing out after being picked in the auction.
Sunil Gavaskar has demanded tightening of IPL rules after Ben Duckett’s withdrawal just before the start of the season.
The IPL has a rule that if a foreign player withdraws his name after being bought in the auction, he cannot play in the IPL or future auctions for two seasons, unless he has a confirmed injury or has a genuine medical problem.
Sunil Gavaskar was quoted in India Today as saying: “It’s tough. Obviously, the Ashes series was very good for Ben Duckett, and if he had not been bought for that amount in The Hundred auction, perhaps 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 it and said he wanted to concentrate on his England Test career.”
Gavaskar said, “But yes, what should be done is also something that BCCI has to think about because the two-year ban is clearly not working. You have to look at something that has an impact. Unless it impacts the player and his chances of coming back to the IPL, it will not work.”
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Sunil Gavaskar demands punishment with real impact
Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar explained that good penalties should have a real impact on the game, such as the slow over rate rule, where teams lose fielding options if they bowl too slowly. This type of penalty makes players and bowlers work faster as it directly changes the game.
Gavaskar stressed that the punishment of exit should also have a direct impact on the individual player. He signed off by saying, “I think you need some kind of penalty that can have an impact. It will have an impact on the individual player. So, I don’t know how that happens, but it’s obviously something that the BCCI will have to sit down and think about.”