Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has endorsed the idea of having a football-style mid-season transfer window in this IPL.
While there has been no official confirmation from the IPL Governing Council, it’s understood that a provision has been made for a short five-day transfer window. Under the rule, only uncapped players who have played no more than two matches at the halfway mark will be eligible for the transfers.
“The mid-season transfer window will give the teams an opportunity to see what they need in the squad and other teams will also be looking at what players they can get,” Rohit said. “It completely depends on the franchise if a situation comes when we need to get a player or give a player. It is good for the tournament and will add even more value to the tournament.”
Mahela Jayawardene, the head coach, also felt it was “a great option.”
“This is the evolution for the franchise model going forward,” he said. “It’s a great option. The opportunity is there and it’s quite new to all franchises to go through the season half-way and discuss how best we can address that.”
Among other changes, IPL 2018 will mark an entry of the Decision Review System which Jayawardene felt will add a new element to the tournament.
“DRS is there in international cricket. It’s a plus for IPL,” he said. “Mistakes happen and DRS is a helping hand. I am pleased with that. International players know how to handle it and it will be a good learning experience for the younger players.”
Jayawardene felt these new innovations would improve the health of cricket in general. “It’s going football way – like transfer, technology being used, and investing in younger players is always going to be healthy for international cricket,” he said.” If you see the Indian white-ball team now, most players have come through IPL. It’s always healthy. I don’t see any problem.
“Skill levels of players have improved because of T20 cricket. See, Test cricket now – 80-90 per cent of Tests are result-oriented, which is always good, purely because of the pace at which guys are scoring runs and the skills that the bowlers have to take wickets. All over matches have gone to the fourth or fifth day and then a result has come. All this is healthy for the game.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo