Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s batting coach and mentor Dinesh Karthik wants the Impact Player rule to remain in place at least until IPL 2027, saying scrapping the contentious regulation in the middle of an IPL cycle would not “make sense”. Karthik, however, criticised the rule for “reducing the chances for India to produce all-rounders” but backed its continuation for IPL 2027. Speaking to Cricbuzz, he said teams had built their squads with the Impact Player rule in mind, arguing that removing it midway through an IPL cycle would be unfair.
The rule was introduced ahead of IPL 2023, after the IPL 2022 mega auction had already been completed. The current IPL cycle runs until 2027 following the mega auction held in 2025.
“When it first came on (the Impact Player rule), it was very good because there were high-scoring games and a lot of teams were almost chasing those totals down. But strangely, this last season, there were not too many close games.
“It just felt like one team scored a lot, and the other team ended up chasing it down. And if you look at how the Impact Player rule has impacted the IPL, it was quite positive at the start. But slowly and steadily, it started losing the charm and the reason why it was there,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.
He highlighted that the rule had affected India’s ability to produce all-rounders.
“It helped make the game more high-scoring than it was. But it definitely decreased the chances of India, as a cricketing country, producing all-rounders,” he said before reiterating his desire for the rule to stay in place for this cycle.
“But what I wouldn’t want is for it to be scrapped this season because teams have been picked with the Impact Player rule in mind. So it makes a lot of sense.
“When you pick a team, you’re picking a team based on 12 players that you’re going to use. Now, suddenly, if you make it 11, there could be a team which is not as strong as a 12-player unit but much better as an 11-player one, and that creates an unfair advantage. It is something they could do away with after the end of this season.
“But in general, I do feel it was quite good at the start, but right now it’s losing the relevance and importance that it probably provided for the fans and the players as well,” he added.
Karthik further said that any new rule should be introduced at the start of a cycle and removed only after that cycle ends, reinforcing his argument for retaining the Impact Player rule until 2027.
“But I just feel that, as a rule, whatever new rule you want to bring in, you need to bring it in at the start of a cycle and do away with it at the end of a cycle if you don’t want to continue with it. First of all, this Impact Player rule was brought in midway through a cycle, and then to do away with it in the middle of another one, I don’t think makes sense. That’s all I would say,” he added.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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