Sunil Gavaskar slams IPL's uncapped player rule, namesdrops MS Dhoni: ‘Indian cricket takes a beating…’

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has urged the BCCI to reduce the retention fees for uncapped Indian players to reduce the pressure of expectation on them and help them play better. Writing in a column for Sportstar, Gavaskar noted that many cricketers who are paid huge sums by IPL franchises are "overwhelmed" and fail to perform on the big stage.

Sunil Gavaskar raises questions about the IPL retention rule: 

Gavaskar also isn't happy that BCCI had brought in an uncapped player rule, just so that MS Dhoni could be retained by Chennai Super Kings ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auctions.

In his column, Gavaskar wrote, "A whole lot of the players bought for huge amounts simply fade away as their hunger and drive are satiated. To the franchises, it perhaps doesn't matter as they may feel it's good riddance, but Indian cricket takes a bit of a beating at the loss of any player whether he has been successful or not. To accommodate Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who became an uncapped player before the auction last year, the limit was raised to ₹4 crore,"

Notably, BCCI had brought back an old IPL uncapped player rule ahead of this year's auctions that allowed franchise's to retain a player as uncapped player if they had not played international cricket for 5 or more years. This rule helped CSK retain Dhoni for a sum of ₹4 crore while Rajasthan Royals also used it to retain pacer Sandeep Sharma. 

"Most of the guys who suddenly become crorepatis are overwhelmed, firstly by their sudden good fortune and then by the nervousness of getting to rub shoulders with those they have admired and perhaps never even dreamt of meeting. They are often not even part of their State's squad of top 30 players," Gavaskar added. 

The former Indian opening batter further noted that these uncapped players perform better the next year when they are picked at lower prices during the auctions. 

“What does happen is that if in the next auction his price comes down, then the pressure of expectations also comes down and the player plays a lot better.” the 75 year old added. 

Notably, the highest paid uncapped player in this year's IPL auction was pacer Rasikh Dar, who has only been able to play 2 matches for RCB this season. Moreover, even more experienced players like Rishabh Pant and Venkatesh Iyer have found it difficult to perform this season after being paid handsomely at the IPL auctions.