BCCI on Foreign cricket leagues
Cricket- a religion with the most followers in India. You can watch people playing cricket in almost every state, city, town, village, roadside, etc. Moreover, with the consistent upgradation of the new formats are being introduced. For instance, the Indian Premier League is one of the most popular cricket tournaments in the world. The Board of Control For Cricket in India (BCCI) did organize it in 2007 for the first time. In which, cricketers from all over the world come and play in teams with combinations of players that franchisees buy. It was and is a great success. Evidently, other countries did start organizing similar tournaments.
However, the BCCI has quite strict rules about Indian players joining foreign cricket leagues. As per them none of the Indian Cricket stars can play in foreign leagues until they player is part of the national team. Moreover, those Indian Cricket stars who want to be part of those tournaments in foreign countries will require a no objection certificate (NOC) from the BCCI.
Though, this doesn’t mean that no Indian player can play franchise tournaments from other countries. Once they take retirement from International cricket, the Indian Cricket stars can represent teams in foreign leagues.
Below are the few Indian players who have already played or are playing the foreign leagues.
1. Yuvraj Singh
Yuvraj Singh was a middle-order left-hand batsman with epic cricket stats. Moreover, with his impressive contribution to the 2007 World Cup, the team was able to bring the cup home. Not just in batting but he also did manage to do some magic tricks with a slow left-arm bowling technique. In addition, in T20 cricket history, he was the very first player to hit a massive and magnificent six sixes in one over.
This exceptional cricketer was part of IPL till 2019. Sadly, with uncountable new young talent, Yuvraj was not able to get a place in any squad. The player did join the league of Global T20 Canada. He played for Toronto nationals in that tournament.
In addition, he also played in the T10 league of Abu Dhabi in 2020. The team he was playing for was Maratha Arabians.
2. Irfan Pathan
Irfan Pathan is another of the Indian Cricket stars from the 2007 world Cup winning Indian India. His left-arm swing bowling was always a strong part of the Indian cricket team. One of the most memorable moments of Irfan Pathan’s career was his hat trick in the very first over of the match against Pakistan.
Moreover, the player was in the IPL till 2017. Being not been part of IPL since 2017, he finally announced his retirement from international cricket in 2020. But, of course, the cricketer does have other plans. Soon after retirement, he was playing for Kandy Tuskers in the Lanka Premier League.
Currently, he is a commentator on the Star Sports network too.
3. Parvin Tambe
The leg spin bowler, Parvin Tambe, is one of the oldest Indian Cricket stars to play in the Indian Premier League. Parvin’s last match with IPL was in 2017 for Sunrisers Hyderabad. After two years of that, he did enter the squad of Sindhis, which was one of the teams of the Abu Dhabi T20 League. Remarkably, he was the first player to take five wickets in T10 format cricket tournaments. Moreover, his performance was exceptional in Caribbean Premier League too while playing for Trinbago Knight riders.
4. Manpreet Gony
Starting from the IPL by playing for Chennai Super Kings, Manpreet Gony was able to be part of the Indian squad. But soon after, he was dropped. Finally, after retiring from international cricket in 2019, he did join Global T20 Canada in the very same year. The Toronto national Side was the team he was playing for in this tournament.
In addition, Colombo Knights from Lanka Premier League also grabbed this all-rounder.
5. Zaheer Khan
The great Indian Bowler Zaheer khan did take retirement from International cricket in 2014. Though he was playing for Delhi Capitals in the IPL till 2017. Post that, in 2019 Zaheer Khan was playing for Delhi Bulls in the Abu Dhabi T10 league.
Currently, he is the bowling coach of an Ipl team (Mumbai Indians).
At last…
At last, above are the few players who did play in foreign franchise-based leagues. BCCI is clear about the rule that once any of the Indian Cricket stars play in foreign leagues, can not join the IPL as a player again. They do this to make the IPL maintain the top-most position.
But of course, that’s the cricketer’s choice at the end of the day. Entertainment is what most cricket fans look for. Those players are delivering even to date.
