06 June 2025 : Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar minced no words as he took aim at uncapped players who turn up just for the Indian Premier League (IPL) and avoid the rigours of domestic cricket. He stated that these players have the good luck that they get to earn in “crores” despite not going on to do tremendous things for the senior India men’s team.
In IPL 2025, the likes of Rasikh Dar (RCB), Naman Dhir (Mumbai Indians), Nehal Wadhera (PBKS), Abdul Samad (LSG), Priyansh Arya (PBKS), Ashutosh Sharma (Delhi Capitals), Anshul Kamboj (Chennai Super Kings) and Abhinav Manohar (SunRisers Hyderabad) were some of the uncapped names that earned in crores.
Gavaskar spoke about the need to reward the players who constantly go through the domestic cricket grind in just the hope of receiving an India cap.
“The argument that it is market forces is not really valid, for more often than not, it is sheer good fortune as some franchises want to take a punt with young talent. Have a look at the uncapped crorepatis throughout the IPL, and you will find that very few have gone on to do big things for India. It’s their good luck that has made them the crores that they actually don’t deserve,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
Gavaskar also said that the BCCI and state associations need to look at how the Ranji Trophy stars can be provided more incentive to turn up for their state teams day in and day out.
“The BCCI has increased the match fees in recent times, and that’s very good, but if they add the slab system of fees whereby those who play more matches get more, then that would make more players turn up for the Ranji Trophy instead of feigning injury just a month or so before the IPL starts so that they don’t get injured and miss out on the IPL,” wrote Gavaskar.
Summary:
Sunil Gavaskar criticized uncapped players earning huge IPL sums without proven domestic performance, questioning the fairness of the current uncapped player policy.