After the ‘Impact Player’ rule, BCCI is in talks to implement a new rule in the upcoming seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL) – The ‘Player’s Loan’ rule.
This type of rule is used in Football leagues, however, it could now be brought into the IPL. Under this rule, if a player is unavailable or gets injured, instead of roping in an unsold player, franchisees will be able to bring in a surplus player from another team on a short-term basis. While temporary contracts are not new in other T20 leagues, IPL has not changed its trade-in policy. But that could change in future.
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One of the franchise officials said this is going to be there sooner or later.
“It is a nice idea. But in the current setup, it does not exist. For sure, if someone like Siddharth Kaul or Chetan Sakariya or let’s say Quinton de Kock is warming the bench another team is in dire need of a replacement, why not? Franchises would be happy to explore the option. But for that to happen, the roster size needs to be bigger in future,” a franchise official said.
Another franchise official said the contracts are such that loaning out doesn’t exist.
“When a player is in contract with one franchise, no other team can discuss a contract with him. Even during off-season, franchises are only allowed to hold talks with other franchises for trade-ins. It’s a closed market in that sense. But player loan may become a thing for uncapped players in future,” the official said.
What does BCCI think?
“We are not currently discussing any such thing as a player loan but if a franchise proposes the idea, we might. We understand that we must evolve with the demand of the time. Player’s loan would be a good idea in that regard. The surplus players can also get a chance to showcase their talent instead of warming the bench. We will discuss that in future,” a senior BCCI official said.