Sunil Gavaskar wants strict action against players leaving IPL for country

England players will leave the ongoing tournament to play against Pakistan later this month

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has stated that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should take strict action against players who will leave the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) for their national committments.

It was reported earlier that several England players will not participate in the IPL 2024 playoffs due to their upcoming T20I series against Pakistan, which will begin on May 22.

While Gavaskar understood that country should always come before franchise cricket, he wanted the franchises the deduct a “substantial fee" from those players who promised their availability for a full season but are backing out.

"I am all for players choosing country before anything else but having assured various franchises about their availability for the full season, if they pull out now, it will be letting down the franchises which probably pay them more money in one IPL season which they don’t earn in a few seasons with their country,” Gavaskar said.

“The franchises should not only be allowed to deduct a substantial amount from the fee that the player was bought for, but also not give the Board, to which the player belongs, the stated 10 per cent commission of the fee that each player gets.”

Remember, the England Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that the selected players will return from IPL to play the series against Pakistan.

"Selected players, currently playing in the Indian Premier League, will return in time for the series against Pakistan, which gets underway at Headingley on Wednesday 22 May 2024," ECB said in their press release earlier.

List of players coming back from IPL for Pakistan series

Punjab Kings: Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Will Jacks, Reece Topley

Kolkata Knight Riders: Phil Salt

Chennai Super Kings: Moeen Ali

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler

England squad for T20 World Cup 2024

Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonathan Bairstow, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Tom Hartley, Will Jacks, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, Mark Wood