'Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is very competitive' - Nikhil Chopra credits BCCI for providing platform to Indian youngsters

Former Indian cricketer Nikhil Chopra has praised India's grassroots program to develop young cricketers. He also shed some light on the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India's domestic T20 championship, and said that it has been playing a big part in the success of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The IPL remains one of the most popular and successful T20 leagues in world cricket. It has continually raised the competitive standards to higher levels since its inception in 2008. Two months ago, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secured INR 48,390 crore (USD 6.20 billion) from the media rights sale of IPL for the 2023-27 window. The BCCI also managed to get a separate two-and-a-half-month window for the tournament in the next ICC men's FTP.

Nikhil Chopra explains why IPL is so successful compared to other leagues

Nikhil believes that IPL's success over the years is due to Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy's existence on the Indian domestic circuit. He was discussing India's grassroots programme's impact during BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh pre-match show on Cricktracker on Thursday. He also explained how teams like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan are developing players through their domestic T20 leagues and how the youngsters are profiting from that. 

"The senior Bangladeshi players are moulding their youngsters and Sri Lanka also have their own domestic T20 league. But why IPL is so successful compared to other leagues? Because of India's domestic T20 championship, Syed Mushtaq Ali, which is very competitive, and that's providing players a platform to express themselves. And this will happen only when respective cricket boards keep providing these platforms," said Nikhil Chopra.

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was introduced by the BCCI during the 2006-07 season with Tamil Nadu winning the first edition under the leadership of Dinesh Karthik. Tamil Nadu are also the current champions of this famous trophy and have won it a record three times. The next edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is scheduled to kick off on 11th of October with 38 state teams set to participate.