New IPL recipe: Power Player

‘Power Player’ may be the new mantra for keeping intact the razzmatazz of the IPL circus.

According to an internal note, the concept of 'Power Player' would allow a player, who is not a part of playing XI, to come in at the fall of a wicket or replace a bowler at any given point of time.

This essentially means that each team will be playing with 12 players and IPL mandarins want to do away with the traditional playing XI.

The concept is likely to be discussed during Wednesday's governing council meeting in Mumbai but the final call would be that of the new cricket czar Sourav Ganguly.

While Ganguly was unavailable for comment, a source close to the BCCI boss said that there is a lot of scepticism among puritans about this concept, which could change the grammar of cricket.

A section among the IPL administrators wants to push the envelope and introduce the concept in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (National T20 Tournament) starting November 9 but there are some who believe the move is loaded in favour of one particular high-profile franchise comprising veteran players.

"There is one particular team which needs a bit of cushion during 2020 IPL with the average age of its core players being 35 plus.

The brain who prepared the concept note possibly kept that particular franchise in mind" pointed out another official.

The other question nagging the sceptics is how the anti-corruption unit will be able to handle the bookie-fixer menace in case of such a rule change? These kind of random player substitutions would mean that bookies and match fixers will work overtime. This is because we are looking at a scenario where a team will not name the Playing XI. They will announce the 15 and a player can be substituted at either the fall of a wicket or at the end of the over at any point in the game. Explaining how the idea will actually change the game, the official said the concept has the capacity to change the match situation and induce out-of-the-box thinking and strategizing, which will engage the fans further.

"Imagine you need 20 runs off the last six balls and you have Andre Russell sitting in the dug-out as he wasn't 100 per cent fit and part of the original XI. But now, he can just walk in and go slam-bang and win you the game.”