Former Indian cricket team skipper Sourav Ganguly said that an Indian Premier League (IPL) career can exist for a cricketer alongside stints in first-class cricket. Amid the controversy surrounding BCCI not offering central contracts to Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan over non-participation in domestic cricket, Ganguly mentioned that there are many players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and even Australia’s David Warner who have successfully balanced both red-ball and white-ball cricket. He even recalled how he along with Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar used to play both formats during their playing days.
“They can play both red-ball and white-ball. IPL career can happen along with stint in first-class cricket. They don’t clash. First-class cricket finishes and then there’s almost a month before the IPL starts. I don’t see any problem,” Ganguly told Times of India.
“A lot of the top-quality players play Test cricket and white-ball cricket. You look at Kohli, Rohit, Bumrah, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. On the world stage, there’s Mitchell Marsh. He is Australia’s premier red-ball player now. Harry Brook plays red-ball cricket. David Warner played so much Test cricket but he was also one of the best white-ball players. Even in my days, Sachin, Rahul and myself played Test cricket and then played white-ball cricket. There’s no reason to say that you can play one and not the other.”
Ganguly was asked by Times of India, “Do you think the younger crop of players needed to be guided better?”
“For someone like Ishan Kishan, BCCI secretary Jay Shah, president Roger Binny and the selectors need to speak to him. All this while he has played Ranji and then played white-ball cricket. Has it made him a poorer player? It hasn’t,” Ganguly replied.
“All the players picked in Delhi Capitals have played Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and Ranji Trophy. Even Ishant Sharma has played Ranji. Khaleel Ahmed has played the full season after a long time. We worked with him in the off season and got him fit to play Ranji. There are only one or two exceptions who need to be spoken to.”
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