Please let us go: Robin Uthappa urges BCCI to allow Indian players in foreign T20 leagues
Veteran Indian player Robin Uthappa on Friday joined the chorus of his ex-teammates Suresh Raina and Irfan Pathan in urging the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) to allow Indian cricketers to go an play overseas T20 franchise cricket.
BCCI does not permit the participation of Indian cricketers in overseas T20 leagues namely Big Bash League (BBL), Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Mzansi Super League (South Africa), Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and others. The only Indian to have played an overseas league is Yuvraj Singh, but following his retirement announcement last year. Following it, he was given a No Objection Certificate (NOC) by BCCI to be part of the Global T20 league in Canada.
Speaking in an interview to BBC, Uthappa said: “Please let us go, honest to God. It does hurt when we’re not allowed to go and play … It would be so nice if we could go and play at least a couple of others because as a student of the game you want to learn and grow as much as you can.”
Uthappa further opined that the law might change under the watchful eyes of Sourav Ganguly who is presently the BCCI president.
“Ganguly is a very progressive thinking human being, someone who has always looked to take India to the next level. He actually laid the foundation for where India cricket is now,” Uthappa said.
“We’re hoping that he will look at this at some point,” he added.
It was only earlier this month when Pathan and Raina brought up the issue during the Instagram Live chat. However, a BCCI official, in conversation with IANS on the matter, said that the board wants to maintain exclusivity so that Indian players can bag good IPL contracts.
