Sunil Gavaskar feels the BCCI needs to make stricter rules.
Sunil Gavaskar has urged the BCCI to bring stricter rules for players pulling out of IPL for non-injury reasons. His statement comes after Ben Duckett’s last-minute withdrawal from the tournament after being bought for his base price by Delhi Capitals (DC).
On India Today, Gavaskar acknowledged Duckett’s priority as an international cricketer after a tough away Ashes series, but wants the BCCI to bring a rule that makes IPL return harder for such players. He feels the two-year ban, which Harry Brook is currently serving and Duckett will face from the next season onwards, is not working at the moment.
“It is a tough one. Clearly, Ben Duckett didn’t have a very good Ashes series, and if he had not been bought for the amount he was at The Hundred auction, maybe things would have been different. One can understand that, having been bought at a very good price in The Hundred, he was probably quite happy to miss this and say he wants to focus on his England Test career. But yes, what should be done is something for the BCCI to think about as well, because a two-year ban is obviously not working. You have to look at something that will have an impact. As long as it’s not having an impact on the player and his chances of coming back to the IPL, it won’t work.”
Ben Duckett was sold for £200,000 to Trent Rockets at The Hundred 2026 auction, an amount that’s slightly higher than his IPL 2026 price of INR 2 crore. With this deal, Duckett won’t need to travel for two more months away from home after spending ample time on the road in the Ashes 2025 and the T20 World Cup 2026.
IPL teams spend a lot of money and resources on every player, and their auction picks are supposed to plug crucial squad gaps. For instance, Delhi Capitals bought Ben Duckett to get a high-intent top-order batter amid a number of anchors and slow starters.
ALSO READ:
Now, their plans are completely disrupted, and they will need to settle for inferior options, which can backfire in the tournament. Duckett, in the meantime, will be fit and firing in the County Championship when he could have easily solved a lot of problems for DC in the IPL.
He holds a hefty England contract and can easily go a couple of more years without playing in the IPL since he earns enough from other leagues, including The Hundred. So, Sunil Gavaskar has made a valid point about stricter rules because players from big nations will keep doing it since they can afford it and return to IPL later after a couple of years.
More than the players, it’s the franchises that bear the brunt; they are forced to plan around avoidable disruptions caused by poor communication and late pullouts. That can only be addressed if the IPL introduces tough measures that make re-entry after such withdrawals far more difficult than the current two-year ban.
For more updates, follow CricXtasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
