IPL 2026 | Calls for stricter penalties for pullouts grow

Bengaluru: Imagine this: You spend countless hours discussing strategies and zero in on players -- backed by extensive data analysis and meticulous scouting -- who could fit into that plan. Come the IPL auction, you fight for their services against your competitors, and often times pay exorbitant prices to sign them. Just ahead of the competition, however, a player pulls out, citing reasons other than injury, unsettling the side.  

“It does hamper the franchise’s preparation quite a lot. Because a lot of planning goes behind the scenes before picking a player,” a former Punjab Kings’ coach told DH on conditions of anonymity. 

The last-minute player pullouts are not just frustrating for a team, but also stressful (to find a replacement from a limited pool), time-consuming and affects the tactics ahead of a two-month long IPL season. 

“If any player pulls out, whether it is an Indian or a foreigner, it will have an impact. Finding replacements, finding the right ones with respect to a team’s home conditions, combinations again falls on the coach. At times, you can’t find the right ones, and it creates a huge impact as far as the franchise is concerned,” he adds.

While pullouts come with consequences to the franchise and the player, on some occasions a cricketer is restricted to perform a limited role on the instruction from his country’s board.

For instance, Kolkata Knight Riders picked up Cameron Green for a whopping Rs 25.2 crore (most expensive overseas purchase) keeping in mind a top-order batter who provides three-four overs in each game.

However, in KKR’s first game, Green played as a specialist batter and when skipper Ajinkya Rahane, during the post-match presentation, was asked why he was not utilised as a bowler, his reply was: “That question you need to ask Cricket Australia”. 

“If you pay for an All-Rounder and get a batsman in return…you should be, at the very least, eligible for a refund,” former India and KKR cricketer Aakash Chopra wrote on X.

Earlier, Green had also confirmed that he would be available to bowl in the IPL and blamed his manager after he was listed as a batter rather than an all-rounder in the auction, ahead of the player auction in December last.

However, CA later barred Green from bowling for the first two weeks of IPL, a call they claim has been communicated to KKR well before the start of this IPL.  

Cooper Connolly, another Australian all-rounder, is playing as a pure batter for PBKS after being asked by CA to not bowl as he recovers from a back injury. 

Talking about how teams can tackle players with utility restrictions, the coach said: “When we pick a player, the association or the player himself would have said these are my restrictions and that’s how the teams pick who they want. Otherwise, if they feel what a certain player brings to the table isn’t enough, they won’t pick,” he said. 

Delhi Capitals’ Ben Duckett recently pulled out of the IPL to rediscover lost form, wanting to play red-ball cricket for Nottinghamshire in the County Championship.

He could also be slapped with a two-year ban that has been set by the BCCI, which his team-mate Harry Brook is serving.

“You have to look at something that will have an impact. As long as it is not having an impact on the player and his chances of coming back to the IPL, it (the bans) won’t work,” Sunil Gavaskar told India Today, calling for stricter pullout punishments. 

DC are also awaiting Mitchell Starc’s arrival to the IPL as the pacer is still recuperating from an injury.

Ben Duckett