How about allowing Indian youngsters to ply their trade in foreign leagues?

Kartik Tyagi, with that Brett Lee-ish run up of his, steams in at the MCG for the Melbourne Stars. Southpaw Devdutt Padikkal creams one through the covers at Lord’s for the London Spirit. Yashasvi Jaiswal clubs a six at Sabina Park for the Jamaica Tallawahs. Imagine if this were possible. The IPL, apart from being the stage for established stars from India and all around the globe, has also been the ideal platform for budding youngsters to show what they are worth.

And this season has been no different with the IPL throwing some exciting young Indian talent to the fore. Names like Tyagi, Padikkal, Jaiswal and many others like Priyam Garg, Ravi Bishnoi, Abdul Samad, Riyan Parag, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mahipal Lomror and R Sai Kishore have impressed and could form the next line to break into the Indian ranks.

But the thing is once the IPL is done and dusted, these players will most probably go back to the grind of India’s domestic circuit.

Times are tough though with this Covid-19 pandemic showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. And with playing opportunities and ‘A’ tours at a premium, perhaps it is time for an evolution.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has for long been loath to allow its Indian stars to play in other franchise leagues, unlike other countries. That has been their stand and rightly so too as they don’t want to lose their contracted players, for whom they pay more than a handsome match fee, or when a tour is round the corner. They are the jewels in the Indian crown and the BCCI want to preserve them for India duty.

But the aforementioned youngsters, some of them who have played Under-19 for India, are yet to feature for the senior team.

So, maybe it makes sense to allow these young guns to play in a few of these franchise leagues like Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL), the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and England’s yet to launch The Hundred.

It will help them to broaden their game and give them more exposure to the world outside. The Big Bash had announced a few days ago that it will allow three overseas players in the playing XI.

The BCCI enjoys a good rapport with the boards of Australia, England and the West Indies and could draw up some sort of agreement to make this happen.

And to monitor their development, there could be no better person than Rahul Dravid, who has mentored most of these youngsters at India ‘A’ and India Under-19 level and is now the head of cricket operations at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.

Worth a thought.