The Punjab Kings co-owner has been blunt with his plea to the BCCI and other boards to see to it that overseas talent is there from start to finish. He cautions that if a player is missing partway through, it warps your strategy and lets down the fans. In his view, it is an urgent fix if the IPL is to hold its standing.
Why alignment on overseas players matters for IPL teams
You put together your campaign around the big names well before the season. Then one of them doesn’t show up and all your plans go out the window. Delhi Capitals can tell you about it; this year they were only given the green light by Cricket Australia for Mitchell Starc in the latter half of the event, and by then their lot was cast.
And it didn’t end with him. Niggles kept Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood out from the off, so you had to make do and adjust. In a tournament this tight, being without your top overseas options for a couple of weeks is enough to change the complexion of the points table.
Burman’s call: collaboration over confrontation
Burman puts it down to ‘a sensitive issue’ – the kind you get with the way international fixtures and board obligations are stacked up. You need to be clear on your commitments up front so a franchise can make a plan and the people in the stands know what they’re in for come the first match.
‘It is hard to plan from where we sit when you have put in the money at the auction for a key man and he is not there for a good chunk of the time,’ he put it. He is for working with one another, not against each other. The BCCI, the owners, the players and the boards all have to 'align schedules better and create clearer commitments.’
Existing rule has limits
There is already a two-year ban in place for any foreigner who bails on the IPL after being picked up, barring injury. It is meant to be a deterrent. But you still see holes in availability, particularly with the top end of the market who have to manage their fitness and country duties.
That is where the rule falls short. It covers a straight-out withdrawal, but not a staggered release. A franchise can be without its marquee signing for a while in the early going with no formal pullout to speak of, which does a number on your tactics and the value of what you paid for him.
Franchise stakes and fan expectations
As a 48 percent owner of the Punjab side, Burman sees how this ties into the very value of the league. People don’t pay to be shown mid-season substitutes; they want to see the stars from week one. Put off the star power and you lose the story for the broadcasters and the season-ticket holders.
Then there is the bottom line for the team. Your whole approach is built on certain skills you have brought in. If they are not there, or only here and there, you are left in a scramble to put someone in their place. It costs you and leaves you with fewer options when you are up against a fully kitted-out opponent.
In a nutshell, these are the sticking points:
– Schedules are too full and they clash
– The national boards have the final say on when a player is let go
– We need to know where we stand for the whole season
– The fans want to see the big names right from the get-go
What coaches are saying
Hemang Badani of the Delhi Capitals is of like mind. ‘I would like to have my players with me from day one, that is the ideal,’ he says from the dugout. But when the governing bodies have other ideas, ‘you can’t do much about it.’
He is talking about the calls made by Cricket Australia on the likes of Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins. ‘A coach or a franchise is in no position to argue with that. Let’s hope we find a way forward,’ says Badani. It is a fact of life that even with the best-laid plans, you can be left in the lurch.
What comes next
Burman is making his point: the premier T20 competition in the world requires a sturdier set of rules on availability that everyone abides by. It is not about sidelining national work, but ordering it in a way that an IPL promise is kept.
We have to get to a place of some negotiated understanding, not just hand out penalties. With the way things are, the IPL has to make sure it has the firmest of word from the overseas boards early on. That is the only way to keep the field level and give the fans the show they have been told to expect.
