Legendary Sunil Gavaskar reckons the recently concluded season of the Major League Cricket failed to draw eyeballs because of the quality of international players. Gavaskar noted that the second edition of the tournament didn’t draw a decent crowd and also feels the big players were casual in their approach.
The second season of the MLC culminated when Steven Smith-led Washington Freedom defeated San Francisco Unicorns in the final in Dallas, Texas.
Gavaskar was part of the broadcast team that covered the tournament in the USA but felt the quality of cricket was not good enough.
“For some reason, the crowds were not quite there this time around. Maybe it was viewer fatigue because of the ICC T20 World Cup preceding the tournament. The cricket was also not of the same high quality as last year. Maybe, because there were too many ordinary players there. The international stars who play in various T20 leagues around the world also seemed a little casual,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for The Sportstar.
“This makes one feel that while nobody wants the players’ source of income to be curbed, it is worth considering if players should be restricted to playing in, say, three leagues. The whole world agrees that the IPL is the best and most competitive tournament because of the talent pool it attracts from all over the world. So maybe a player should be restricted to the IPL and two other leagues of his choice,” he opined
Meanwhile, three MLC teams are backed by IPL owners. Gavaskar observed it is a bit strange when an IPL player has to play for their sister franchise whereas in some instances, they have to play against their sister franchise.
“It is also a bit strange to see players who play for one franchise in the IPL playing for the team of another rival IPL franchise in the other leagues. It is perfectly understandable if the franchise they play for in the IPL does not have a team in the various countries’ T20 leagues, but it does seem odd to see them wearing the jersey of a rival IPL team franchise in the other leagues,” Gavaskar added in his column.
