Gautam Gambhir to withdraw from the unofficial T20 League

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have sent a notice to the recently launched unofficial Indian Junior Premier League, a T20 event which instigated two months ago and has Gautam Gambhir as their brand ambassador. The tournament which is promoted by Delhi-based businessman Dinesh Kapoor first caught the attention of BCCI when Gautam Gambhir took to his twitter account and posted a tweet on the overview of the tournament on September 9. The tweet read: ‘New horizons with @IJPLT20. A national tournament for junior cricket aspirants’. The IJPL mentions former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes, Caribbean T20 specialist Kieron Pollard and Himachal Pradesh cricketer Rishi Dhawan are the mentors.

It was understood from close sources of Gambhir that he had already received the message from BCCI and has replied to them mentioning about his withdrawal from the league. However, after Gambhir’s withdrawal from the tournament, there have been fingers pointed at the BCCI for maintaining double standards.

“Gambhir decided to promote a league knowing that he wasn’t contracted with the BCCI at the time but was sent a notice immediately. MS Dhoni had promoted the UAE-based Masters Champions League (MCL) and had sent out a video message supporting the league despite being the India captain. But the BCCI had no objection to that,” a source close to Gambhir was quoted by the Times of India.

“Rhiti Sports, the company associated with Dhoni, also bought a team in the MCL but it all conveniently went unnoticed. Gambhir’s association ­ despite the fact that he doesn’t have a contract with BCCI right now ­ turned out to be a problem,” the source added.

The T20 tournament was launched as a talent hunt for cricketers aged between 14 to 18 years. The tournament was planned to be played with a pink ball across 22 cities. It was divulged in the presence of Gambhir on 15th September. After fighting a long and legal battle with Essel Group’s now defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL), the BCCI has been reluctant in dealing with any private leagues developed in the country. “Which is perfectly understandable but why to have one policy for Dhoni and another for Gambhir?” said an executive associated with the unofficial league.