Aravinda De Silva feels India should ease grip on T20 leagues

Former Sri Lanka captain Aravinda de Silva urged India to allow its star players to participate in overseas T20 leagues. De Silva also acknowledged that the IPL and other T20 leagues have benefited cricket, but still he’d like to see Indian stars feature in tournaments all around the world.

Aravinda said India should enable smaller nations to share in the riches generated to grow the game, raise global playing standards and improve skill levels, something that would ultimately benefit the IPL.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has become one of the biggest domestic T20 leagues all around the world wherein star players from all the world are bagged by various franchises for a huge amount. 

The Indian Premier League started in 2008 and has led to many other countries around the world coming up with their own domestic T20.

However, the IPL still reigns at the throne of the most popular domestic T20 league with a recent media rights auction valuing the IPL at a whopping $6.2 billion, or $15 million per match, making it bigger in those terms than football's English Premier League which is valued at $11 million per match.

Aravinda De Silva was known for his aggressive batting skills and chipping in during the most crucial moments. De Silva was a key component in the Lankans 1996 World Cup triumph. 

He compared the current T20 leagues to English domestic cricket in the latter part of the last century, which attracted top players from all around the world to learn their craft and gain experience. Aravinda also praised Pakistan for putting up a great show with the Pakistan Super League despite a lack of publicity and resources.

"It's like the county cricket of those days which gave the English cricketers the advantage," the 56-year-old, who played for English county Kent in the 1990s, told AFP

"The IPL, Big Bash or in England the Hundred and T20 Blitz, those are tournaments which allow players to develop,"

“If you have one dominating country, you can see from the IPL, they basically run a monopoly on the premier leagues because the Indian cricketers are not allowed to play in other leagues," Aravinda said.

"So what will probably happen is that the standard -- if it keeps dropping and if there is no real competition -- at some point it's going to affect the global game,”

"Unless (India) find a way to support the other countries and get them up to grips with the kind of support levels which the game requires nowadays, it's a negative for the cricket world,”

"It's the (world governing body) ICC's responsibility to make sure that it's done in a manner where these countries keep developing, otherwise we don't want a situation like Zimbabwe and South Africa, how they dipped from their standard of cricket,"

The last IPL saw some young Sri Lankan stars being brought by franchises. Dushmantha Chameera played for the Lucknow Supergiants while Chamika Karunaratne was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders. 

Young leggie Wanindu Hasaranga was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for $1.42 million and was the second-highest wicket-taker in this year's 10-team tournament.

De Silva also mentioned how he was grateful to Australia for touring the island nation for a five-match one-day international series and two Tests, bringing some joy to Sri Lankan people who are suffering from an unprecedented economic crisis.

"We definitely saw the passion even with all these issues, we had some full houses during the one-day series, (I am) thankful to the Australians who decided to come and bring some smiles to the Sri Lankan people. It was amazing. My heartfelt gratitude goes to them,” concluded Aravinda.