Cricket News: Has the presence of foreign players in IPL hurt India in the ICC tournaments?

Current Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) president Ramiz Raja took a dig at the Indian team and the league, noting how Pakistan outperformed ‘billion-dollar’ groups. 

“We doubted ourselves. We all saw in this World Cup how Pakistan is far ahead of other billion-dollar teams. So we are doing certain things right,” Raja told reporters. 

He wasn’t the only one to bring the IPL into the criticisms of the Indian players. Wasim Akram, who’s worked in the IPL during his stint as bowling coach for the Kolkata Knight Riders, noted that India’s sole T20 World Cup success came before the advent of the IPL. 

“Everyone thought India would benefit from IPL. It started in 2008. India won the T20 World Cup in 2007. But since the start of IPL, India never won the T20 World Cup,” Wasim Akram said on a TV channel. 

It’s also raised an uncomfortable question among Indian cricket circles: has the tournament benefitted foreign teams more than it has India? 

Indeed, there is a case to be made that several players have used the cash-rich league to sharpen their game – aside from making a pretty penny in the process. 

The league has also been instrumental in the rise of many foreign players over the past few decades – David Warner played in India as a youngster, Tim David played for the Australian national team, and Kieron Pollard developed his reputation in India as well. 

However, blaming the league for helping foreign players is a simplistic argument. After all, the high-pressure nature of the league has also benefitted India’s cricket ecosystem immensely. 

For one, it has given India’s massive cricket talent pool another goal to aim for. Every cricketer can’t play for India, but IPL provides extra financial security and is a massively watched league the world over. 

There’s also the fact that state cricket associations have benefitted from the BCCI’s revenue growth in spades. Thus, the IPL has helped the country immensely in more ways than one. 

That being said, it is worth noting that maybe one of the unfortunate side effects of India’s talent pool growing as much as it has is that they are so spoiled for options that they can’t pick a settled core of players. 

One of the biggest strengths of other teams is that they knew their probable squad months before the T20 World Cup. 

The same cannot be said for the BCCI and India, who experimented away to glory in the build-up to the tournament – with many an IPL star getting his moment in the sun with the national team. 

So the IPL has created added benefits, but they also come with issues. Rather than blame the tournament, it would be in the best interests of all if the board came up with solutions to fix the issues. 

And for the sake of Indian cricket, let’s hope it happens sooner rather than later.