Why the limit on the foreign players is a bad thing for Indian cricket
Because thanks to the limit, Indian internationals can take their place in their respective IPL sides for granted.
They will never be dropped because there are no replacements for them.
You have to pick 4 foreigner slots to fill from a total of 8 players. As a result, you can replace an underperforming foreigner, no matter how high profile he is, with another quality foreign player.
We have seen the likes of Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Muralitharan, Jayasuriya, Pietersen, Brett Lee and Dale Steyn getting dropped.
But we have never seen and probably will never see ( till you have the limit on foreign players) the likes of Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma or MS Dhoni getting dropped for poor performance.
Unless they touch some unthinkable low, like getting half a dozen ducks in a row. But I can bet my mortgage against that ever happening.
These guys cannot be dropped because there aren’t enough quality Indian players in any side. There is no one, say in the Delhi side, who can come in for the likes of Gambhir or Sehwag. The likes of Kedar Jadhav or Mithun Manhas can only come in if Sehwag or Gambhir gets injured.
Similarly who do you bring in if you plan to drop Yuvraj; the Kings would rather play his corpse than take a chance with Tanmay Srivastava or Karan Goel.
No wonder we have seen Indian internationals continue to bat and bowl in crucial positions ( and not just play) irrespective of their form.
The same thing would never happen in European football If an English international ( say Wayne Rooney) plays poorly, his manager will drop him in favour of an overseas player.
He doesn’t have to worry about finding a quality English replacement.
That ensures that Rooney can never take his place for granted.
An IPL side cannot replace a poor performing Indian with an overseas star.
So would an Indian international ever have to worry about the prospect of getting dropped. No
Is that a good thing for Indian Cricket?
