Lucknow Super Giants fielding coach Jonty Rhodes said that he is not a “big fan of the Impact Player” rule of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as it kills the role of an all-rounder.
Rhodes’ critique comes in support of prominent players like Rohit Sharma, who have expressed concerns that the rule discourages the development of allrounders and leads to inflated scores. However, Ravichandran Ashwin believes that the rule adds a valuable strategic element to the game.
“I am siding myself with the right use of the Impact player rule because players are almost playing with freedom so I’m just worried about the role of an all-rounder because it’s a simple role but plays a vital job in cricket and you need that for test cricket 50 over and all other T20s as well.”
“So I am not a massive fan of that impact player and maybe I’m just not smart enough to work out when the right strategy to use the player is. But again, it’s not my decision when to send a player in, so I’m not losing sleep about it. I’m always up for change and to try things to adapt the game, and make it more exciting and enjoyable. And I think it certainly did that, big scores were put on the board in last season. But I’m still really concerned about the role of the all-rounder, the importance of the role of the all-rounder in T20 cricket, and the Impact Player rule is certainly killing it,” Rhodes told IANS.
The Impact Player rule, which was introduced in IPL 2023, allows a team to use 12 players instead of the traditional 11. A team can swap any player, bowler or batter, at any point during the game with another player, to effectively make use of the services of an additional player.
Rhodes also feels that RTM (Right to Match) is not a concern for him, but it does depend on how many players BCCI lets keep. Rhodes believes that a club is built through its players, so if a franchise loses its core players, it raises a lot of questions.
“I’m not big involved in the auction set up so it’s not something that I give a lot of thought to. I don’t lose any sleep over right to match that’s for sure. But retention and how many players you can have is obviously questionable because you try and build a culture within a team as a coach. It’s not just the coaching skills, you try and build a culture within a team as a coach i mean it’s not just the coaching skills you try and bring a team culture in and when you’re losing a good part of your team in the mega auctions it’s very tough to do that so so right to match for me is a case of okay. But the question is can we retain more than just two or three or four players because that’s how you build a team culture.”
RTM is a regulation that allows teams, if their bid matches the highest amount made by a franchise, to immediately acquire the player who played for them the previous season. Since its introduction in 2014, the RTM rule has not been applied in IPL auctions since 2018.
Since the teams were at odds during the board meeting earlier this month, the BCCI has not yet decided on the number of retentions and RTM cards for the upcoming IPL season. Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad—two IPL clubs that did well in the previous season—want to be retained for more than three seasons. Others, such as Punjab Kings, however, desire minimum retention to enter the auction with all guns blazing.
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