Foreign T20 Leagues are growing in terms of popularity day by day. The likes of Big Bash League, Hundred, Caribbean Premier League and Pakistan Super League have secured their respective windows on the calendar year. Now, even UAE and South Africa are launching their respective T20 leagues.
The BCCI allows the foreign cricketers to participate in the Indian Premier League, but it does not allow the active Indian cricketers to play in foreign leagues. Indian cricketers need to take retirement from Indian cricket as well as IPL to get permission to play in foreign T20 leagues.
Quite a few players like Yusuf Pathan, Munaf Patel, Manpreet Gony, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Sudeep Tyagi have played in foreign leagues after retirement. The following star players may follow them soon as well.
1. Suresh Raina has been in favor of playing foreign T20 Leagues
Two years ago, Suresh Raina said in an interview that the Indian players who are not under the BCCI contract should receive a chance to play foreign leagues for experience. Here’s what Raina said:
“The thing is when cricket (IPL) is over, players who aren’t contracted….give them a chance. We want to play one league or two leagues. We just want to play. Ranji Trophy’s standard isn’t of that quality now.”
Now that Raina has retired from international cricket and went unsold in IPL, it will be interesting to see if he plays in foreign leagues.
2. Sreesanth has retired to play in foreign T20 leagues
Former Indian fast bowler Sreesanth retired from international cricket and IPL after going unsold this year. He said that he will play in other leagues and also try his luck in coaching after retirement.
3. Harbhajan Singh
Harbhajan Singh is set to feature in the upcoming Legends League T20. If his body supports him, he could also consider playing in T10 leagues like 6ixty and Abu Dhabi T10 League in near future.
