'Sheer waste of money' - Sunil Gavaskar questions IPL franchises' decision to pick players from state T20 leagues

The Delhi Premier League has joined the extensive list of of state-based franchise leagues such as Tamil Nadu Premier League, the Maharaja T20 Trophy, the Chhatisgarh Cricket Premier League and the Uttar Pradesh T20 amongst others. The said leagues are the knock-off of the Indian Premier League in terms of its model, with the only exception being the teams involved being confined to the respective states.

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar recently probed into BCCI's logic in granting permission to state associations to form their own leagues, asserting that those who perform at that level may not necessarily translate that when picked for the higher levels due to the stark difference in the standard.

“We have already seen how most Under-19 players struggle to get their footing at the first-class level as the standard of the opposition is way higher than in the junior tournaments,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for the Mid-Day, as quoted by News18.

He further penned that franchises are gradually ascertaining the futility of such players from the T20 leagues organised by states.

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“Similarly, those who shine in the State T20 leagues don’t necessarily replicate their performances in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy or the IPL as the standards are much higher there. The franchises are finding out that forking crores for players shining in the State Premier leagues is not a great idea and a sheer waste of money,” wrote Gavaskar.

Gavaskar feels Test competitions much better parameter for filtration 

The cricketer-turned-commentator jotted down that tournaments like Duleep Trophy would be a much better paramter to judge the suitability of the cricketers.

“The Indian cricket season begins with the Duleep Trophy starting in a couple of weeks’ time and it’s good to see that this time around, all the internationals will be taking part in it. That is the one sure way the selectors will be able to see if the bowlers and batters are good enough to take the next step to the international level,” added Gavaskar.

Also Read: They are playing Duleep Trophy because of the harsh steps I have taken: Jay Shah

KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, and Shubman Gill are some of the internationals added to take part in the competition, in a bid to get them acclimatized to playing the longest format in home conditions with the two-match series against Bangladesh followed up by a three-match challenge against New Zealand.