Former India captain MS Dhoni was retained by CSK for INR 4 crore
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar felt that there is a need for the BCCI and the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) governing council to rethink the cap on the fees for uncapped players due to the problems it brings.
Gavaskar felt that by increasing the fees INR 4 crores before the IPL 2025 auction to accommodate Chennai Super Kings to retain MS Dhoni as an uncapped player, the larger pool of players’ careers are affected.
The former India captain, who called time on his international career in 2019, was included as an uncapped player as he has not played international cricket for more than four years.
While this is not the case for other franchises who had to retain a legacy player, Gavaskar felt the exorbitant bids for relatively unknown players is being done solely based on numbers on their computer screen that are of the player from their respective state leagues.
“Most of them have never actually seen the player play or what the opposition is like. Was it challenging? Was it competitive? Was it demanding is something that doesn’t fit into the data at all,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
Gavaskar opined that by writing big cheques for players who haven’t experienced life at the highest level, are usually overwhelmed by all the attention – both good and bad – the price tag brings to them.
Over the years, there have been several uncapped players who attracted big sums of money but fell on the wayside and were ignored by the franchises after one or two seasons.
“In all these years, it is hard to recall an uncapped player bought for huge numbers who has justified his inclusion in the team. Maybe over the next couple of years, he may get a bit better with experience, but if he is playing in the same local league, then that chance of improvement doesn’t get much better,” Gavaskar further added.
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For IPL 2025, PBKS retained the uncapped duo of Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh for a combined total of INR 9.5 crore while Rahul Tewatia (Gujarat Titans), Abishek Porel (Delhi Capitals), Ayush Badoni (Lucknow Super Giants), Shah Rukh Khan (GT) all were retained for INR 4 crore each.
“To accommodate Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who became an uncapped player before the auction last year, the limit was raised to Rs 4 crore. Maybe it is time to relook at that and reduce it further so that Indian cricket does not lose out on talent that seems to flounder its way with the pressure when auctioned for crores,” he added.
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