There has been a discussion about Indians not playing in foreign leagues after Team India faced a disastrous 10-wicket loss in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup to England last T20 World Cup 2022.
Following the match, Rahul Dravid attended the post-match press conference as he countered questions surrounding India’s disappointing defeat in Adelaide.
India are the only country in the cricket world whose cricketers do not play in franchise leagues of other countries.
When the English cricketers and Pakistan cricketers are much acquainted with the T20 World Cup venue in Australia by playing the BBL regularly.
But Indian Head coach Rahul Dravid doesn’t want Indian cricketers to be allowed to play in foreign leagues to end up like West Indies.
West Indies cricketers are much popular in franchise leagues, but they are always reluctant to play for their country. As a result, they could not even qualify for the Super 12 with a weak team.
India head coach Rahul Dravid believes that playing in foreign leagues will make Indian cricketers more proficient in playing in foreign venues. He even believes that England cricketers are using the advantage of playing BBL in the World Cup.
Dravid said, “I mean, sure, there’s no doubt about it, the fact that England… a lot of their players have come here and played. In this tournament, it certainly showed. It’s tough. I think it’s very difficult for Indian cricket because a lot of these tournaments happen right in the peak of our season.”
Highlighting the reality, Dravid said how playing in foreign leagues will cause a loss to India.
He added, “I think it’s a huge challenge for us. Yes, I think a lot of our boys maybe do miss out on the opportunities of playing in a lot of these leagues, but if you were to… it’s really up to the BCCI to make that decision, but the thing is it’s right in the middle of our season,
and with the kind of demand there would be for Indian players, if you allowed all the Indian players to play in these leagues, we would not have a domestic cricket [tournament]. Our domestic [first-class] trophy, our Ranji Trophy, would be finished, and that would mean Test cricket would be finished.”
He further said, “I know a lot of people talk about it [no Indians in overseas T20 leagues], but we have to be very careful when we… we have to understand the challenges that Indian cricket faces or the BCCI would face in a situation like this.
You’d see all our boys… like a lot of boys being asked to play leagues right bang in the middle of our season. We’ve seen what that’s done to West Indian cricket, and I would definitely not want Indian cricket to go that way. It would certainly affect our Ranji Trophy; it would affect Test cricket. Indian boys playing Test cricket is pretty important for the Test game as well, I would think.”