TNPL to go ahead with first draft without outstation players

What’s the story?

After being at loggerheads with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association has decided to go ahead with the first round of drafts for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Premier League without the outstation players.

This decision was taken by the TNCA after the BCCI reiterated its stand and asked the state board to confirm that “no players from other states and or outstation players (i.e. players who do not play for Tamil Nadu in the BCCI Domestic Tournaments) have been included in the draft.

However, TNCA officials are optimistic about conducting a separate draft for outstation players on June 30 or July 1.

The Details

This tussle between the TNCA and the BCCI have been going on for some time and the Tamil Nadu board had written to the BCCI claiming that outstation players took part in the Karnataka Premier League and various other age group tournaments all over the country and hence the TNPL is no exception.

Replying to this letter the BCCI said: "Only players registered in with the KSCA and GCA respectively can participate in the said tournaments and no players from other states and/or outstation players are permitted to play in the said tournaments."

In case you didn’t know...

As many as 88 outstation players including the likes of Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Sanju Samson, Rahul Tripathi and other IPL and T20 specialists from all over the country had signed up for the draft.

However, this current setting could only mean that they can go ahead and ply their trade when both the BCCI and the TNCA come on the same page.

What's next?

According to reports, the TNCA is not looking at legal options against the BCCI currently and the officials are pretty confident that a solution will be reached sooner rather than later.

Also, the concerned players have reportedly expressed their desire to participate in the league only if the BCCI gives them the green signal.

Author's Take

It should be mentioned here that the current president of TNCA, N Srinivasan was the person responsible for this rule when he was the president of the BCCI.

However, in the interest of the players and the league, there should be no reason why this rule should not be scrapped at the earliest for it is, after all, a BCCI-approved league and there should be no restrictions for players from all over the country to take part in the tournament if the concerned franchises are comfortable with it.