Follow UsOn May 17 (Saturday), the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 will resume after a one-week forced break due to India-Pakistan border tensions. But a fair share of overseas players have either opted out or are unavailable due to international commitments. Even after that, IPL Chairman Arun Singh Dhumal believes that the quality of the league will be maintained.
“Most of the players have come back, and I am sure the quality of the league will be maintained. There’s no pressure to participate. All players and boards share good relationships with the BCCI and franchises. Pressurising players to participate won’t produce good quality cricket,” Dhumal was quoted as saying to The Times of India.
Talking about the challenges in restarting the IPL after just a break of seven days, Dhumal said, “It certainly had logistical challenges. There was so much uncertainty when we halted the IPL. We did not know when we would get to restart. The players had gone back. But we sat with all stakeholders and chalked out Plan B.”
“We also had to factor in that the monsoon was coming early this year. We had to ensure that we didn’t have any games washed out once we resumed. That’s why the venues have changed. BCCI has been successfully running the IPL for 17 years. We have seen off Covid times and that helps. This was just a stumbling block. That’s the beauty of sports — you rise after every fall,” he added.
South African players, part of their World Test Championship (WTC) Final squad, might also be in contention to play in the playoffs part of IPL 2025. In that case, whether they will commit full-time or not to the IPL is yet to be seen. Tristan Stubbs has become the first WTC-bound player to have committed his full-time availability to the Delhi Capitals.
Responding to rumours of BCCI forcing Cricket South Africa (CSA) to allow its players to commit for the entirety of the league, Dhumal said, “We are discussing it with CSA. They have the World Test Championship final on June 11. We have requested them to let the players who are not selected stay back and let the players who are willing to stay back for the entire tournament.”