Legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has criticized the growing trend of foreign cricketers making themselves available for only a part of the IPL season instead of committing to the entire tournament. Gavaskar believed that players who are not fully committed are not doing justice to the league.
The former Indian captain’s sharp reaction came after several foreign players informed the BCCI and the franchises that they will participate only in selected matches of the Indian Premier League 2026. The issue gained attention when Australia’s Josh Inglis told the BCCI that he would play only 25% of the season.
Sunil Gavaskar criticized foreign stars for selection of IPL matches
Additionally, Australia’s Ashton Agar is available for 65% of the tournament, William Sutherland for 80%, New Zealand fast bowler Adam Milne for 95%, and South Africa’s Riley Rossouw are available for only 20% of the matches in the next edition of the tournament.
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Meanwhile, Gavaskar felt that the Indian Premier League is the biggest T20 competition in the world and anyone who takes it carelessly should not be allowed entry into the auction.
He believes that national duty should be the only valid reason to miss games, and anything other than that is a lack of respect for the tournament.
Anyone taking the Indian Premier League lightly should not be considered: Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day, “There are some players who have made themselves available for a limited period. Frankly, if a player does not show respect for the IPL and does not make himself available for the entire tournament, he should not even be in the auction.”
The great batsman further added, “If anything is more important to him than national commitments, then not even a second of the auction should be wasted on him. The IPL is the best T20 league in the world, and anyone taking it lightly should not be considered at all.”
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He also expressed concern over another growing issue and that is the huge sums paid to uncapped Indian players in the Indian Premier League. Gavaskar took his concerns further and said, “Look at the starting price at which all those who went on to become great players for India were bought.”
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The renowned broadcaster further added, “They were all bought at their base price and hence had the hunger to perform and earn more. Now look at all the uncapped players bought for crores and see where they are now. Maybe there is a lesson in this somewhere.”
Sunil Gavaskar expressed concern over IPL money
Since there is no salary cap for uncapped players, Gavaskar said many young and relatively unknown players will once again earn many times more than experienced Ranji Trophy players by playing in empty stadiums.
Gavaskar said, “The sad thing is that most of these youngsters bought for big money, if not all, hardly play in tournaments and are lost from the game after one or two seasons.”
Notably, the IPL 2026 auction is scheduled to take place on December 16 in Abu Dhabi. All 10 teams will try to outdo each other to fill the 77 vacant spots, which also include 31 spots for overseas players, in the auction. A total of 1,355 players have registered for the auction, including 1,062 from India and 293 from other countries.