On Tuesday, Ravi Ashwin announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League; however, in his post on X, he mentioned exploring new leagues, and soon reports from England emerged that Ashwin might be part of The Hundred for the next season. Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra, if Ashwin has taken this step, will other Indian players follow?
“Ravichandran Ashwin has said goodbye to the IPL as well, and he is now saying that he will go play the different leagues across the globe. He is charting a new course. His IPL career has been terrific, but all good stories come to an end, and his story ends here. Does it mean other Indian players can also go to play in other leagues?” he said.
However, Chopra believes that players could lose money from playing leagues other than the IPL. “Wherever he puts his name, he is going to get picked, and he will do very well. Indian players aren’t allowed to play in the other leagues to save the novelty of the IPL. If you have to go and play elsewhere, you have to retire not just from international cricket, but also from the IPL, and that’s a slightly big caveat. You can go and play somewhere else only if you say tata bye-bye to IPL money,” he observed.
“There are very few players like that. Ravichandran Ashwin is doing something incredibly different. He is writing a different story as he is leaving despite having a ₹9.75 crore contract. Everyone cannot do that. If someone is bought for less money, no one buys him outside either. If someone is getting good money here, why would he leave? Ashwin is charting a new course, and too many Indian players will not be a part of this course with him,” Chopra reasoned.
And Ashwin is not the first player to do something like this. Earlier, Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik retired from Indian cricket and appeared for Paarl Royals in the last edition of the SA20 league. Getting top Indian names for their domestic competitions has been the aspiration of boards around the cricketing world to attract eyeballs, social media attention and advertisers, but BCCI doesn’t allow its players to turn out in leagues in direct competition with the IPL unless they retire from all forms of Indian cricket – international as well as domestic.
