MUMBAI: Even as it has decided to continue with the Impact Player rule in the high-profile India Premier League (IPL) for the next three seasons-2025-27, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, in a rather surprising decision, has decided to scrap the controversial rule, which allows a team to substitute a batsman or bowler at any point during the match, for the forthcoming edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.
While sending the guidelines to all the state associations about the rules and regulations of all the other domestic tournaments on August 5, Amit Siddheshwar, the BCCI‘s Manager, Cricket operations, had mentioned: “Men’s T20 Playing conditions will be shared shortly.”
On Monday evening, in an email to all the state associations in which he attached a copy of the playing conditions of the 2024-25 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, Siddheshwar wrote: “Dear Sir, you are aware that the playing conditions for Men’s Domestic T20 tournament is pending and we are glad to share the same with you. Kindly note that the BCCI has decided to do away with the provision of ‘Impact Player’ for the ongoing season. Regards, Amit.”
The BCCI had introduced the Impact Player rule, which isn’t prevalent in international cricket, in the SMAT on an experimental basis a couple of seasons ago (in 2022-23) and then subsequently adopted it in the IPL as well.
While it added excitement for broadcasters, with the last two editions of the IPL seeing massive scores, it was criticised by many former and current players, most notably Indian captain Rohit Sharma and superstar Virat Kohli on the grounds that it would kill the growth and development of allrounders in T20 cricket, and made things extremely tougher for the bowlers, as a specialist batsman would walk in during the death overs.
On April 20, current Maharashtra head coach Sulakshan Kulkarni had asked for the rule to be scrapped from SMAT as it was hampering the development of allrounders.
“Recently, I was asked for a few suggestions to improve domestic cricket by the BCCI, and I’ve recommended that the ‘Impact Player’ rule should be scrapped from the Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy from next season onwards. If this rule isn’t in place in international cricket, which means that it won’t be there in the T20 World Cup, why is it being used in IPL?,” Kulkarni had told TOI.
With the game now being a ’12 vs ‘ contest, IPL teams have increasingly started playing specialists.
According to sources, the rule has been continued in the IPL due to pressure from the broadcasters, and the discovery of some young India players like Dhruv Jurel as they got a chance to play for their franchise teams as an ‘Impact Player.’
However, during the last IPL, the rule severely hampered Indian allrounders Washington Sundar, big-hitter Shivam Dube (played as an ‘Impact Player’ for most of IPL-2024 for the Chennai Super Kings), Venkatesh Iyer and Riyan Parag, who emerged as a decent part-time off-spinner, who can bowl his full quota of four overs in T20 cricket, during the T20I series in Sri Lanka post the IPL.
