‘Focused more on playing the league’ – Former Australian cricketer talks about how cash-rich league is affecting Indian Cricket

Indian T20 League is a brilliant platform for youngsters to showcase their skills and talent to the selectors and to the audience. The fear has been raised that the focus on the shortest format could mean the future generation will prefer T20 cricket more than Tests.

According to former Australian cricketer Brad Hogg, this is negatively impacting Indian cricket as the players are limiting themselves the chance to acquire the aspect of developing to bat for a long period of time.

“I think it is (Indian T20 League affecting Indian cricket) because the young players that are coming through the system are more focused on playing T20 Indian T20 League cricket because there is probably a little more cash in it, it’s a short form, it’s quick and you get the game done and dusted,” Hogg said.

Indian T20 League 2023 Mini Auctions to take place

“When they are focused on that T20 cricket scenario, they are not focused on the longer forms. They don’t know how bowlers set up batters to take wickets and how batters build their innings to bat for long periods of time. It’s not so much the generations that are playing international cricket right now like the Virat Kohli’s and Rohit Sharma’s. It’s younger players that are just debuting for India that are most affected,” the Australian spinner added.

Meanwhile, a total of 405 cricketers from across the globe are set to go under the hammer in Kochi at the upcoming Indian T20 League auction on December 23. From a list of 991 players, a total of 369 were initially selected by 10 teams. 

The individual teams requested an additional 36 players, who were eventually included in the final list. There are currently 87 places total, 30 of which are reserved for players from abroad. With a starting bid of INR 1.5 crore, 11 players are included in the auction list. The two cricketers from India with a base price of INR 1 crore are Manish Pandey and Mayank Agarwal.