Is IPL asking foreign players to quit international cricket and play franchise-based T20 leagues?

In what comes as a new or rather a shocking news, a few of the IPL teams have reached out to several overseas cricketers- six unnamed English players to be precise, to quit international cricket and instead join them and play in their teams in franchise-based T20 leagues across the world. As reported by Times first, informal conversations between undisclosed entities over the same have been going on in England, Australia, and New Zealand and even in South Africa.

The reports suggest that given the IPL owners now hold stakes in other T20-based league across world in UAE, South Africa and the USA, to name the latest ones; they are seeking players who could remain available to feature in those tournaments, even if this means quitting international cricket.

According to Heath Mills, executive chairman of FICA, the global players' body, such a report shouldn’t surprise anyone as players would like to opt for this option in years to come.

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"There have been informal conversations between some franchises and players about being available to play in multiple tournaments. That can take a different shape and form for different players. But it should come as no surprise to anyone in cricket that these conversations are happening and that players will have these sorts of options in the future,” Mills said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

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Elaborating further on this, Mills, who without naming anyone or any team, added such talks are already underway.

"Without going into the specifics of individual conversations, they are about a player being available to play for a franchise in different T20 leagues. A franchise might have three or four teams globally, so they might want the player in multiple competitions - as opposed to just the IPL. It's not necessarily about signing a player up for all competitions exclusively but rather additional ones to their IPL team," Mills added.

However, with the Indian players being the biggest draw and knowing they are unlikely to get the NOC from the BCCI to appear in any other league other than the IPL, the owners had no choice but to reach out to foreign players. It comes on a back of a few instances in the past where a major player in a team decided not to sign a central contract just to remain available for these T20 leagues – the biggest example of which is of New Zealand’s Trent Boult, who decided against signing the central contact with the BlackCaps.

On the contrary, the ECB’s managing director, Robert Key, while speaking on BBC’s Test Match Special Podcast earlier this week, said for England players, Test cricket is still the priority, and for them to fall into this bracket, it would take a few years and will not be easy.

"Test cricket is still the hold for English players, I don't see any time in the near future certainly where one of the Test players, certainly the centrally contracted players, is going to say 'by the way I'm going off to America for three weeks," Key said. "I just don't think that's going to happen. That is not a threat at the moment. Obviously it is different for white-ball cricketers," Rob Key said.