At the customary pre-season captains\u2019 meeting held at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters here on Wednesday evening, a majority of the 10 franchise captains expressed reservations about continuing with the rule.<\/p>\n
It is understood that once one of the senior-most captains in the first all-Indian captains\u2019 gathering ahead of an IPL season raised concerns, he received vocal backing from several others. While IPL and BCCI officials listened to the apprehensions \u2014 ranging from creating an uneven playing field to potentially hampering the development of Indian allrounders \u2014 they clarified that the rule would remain in place until at least IPL 2027.<\/p>\n
Introduced in 2023, the Impact Player rule allows teams to make a substitution at any stage during the match. In practice, this has led to teams replacing an additional batter with a specialist bowler or vice versa, effectively altering team balance and reducing the importance of allrounders.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a captain also raised the possibility of extending the option of a ball change midway through the second innings to counter heavy dew. However, Javagal Srinath and Nitin Menon \u2014 heads of the IPL\u2019s match referees\u2019 and umpires\u2019 panels, respectively \u2014 declined the suggestion, explaining that the existing ball-change provision was already designed to address dew in the latter stages of a match.<\/p>\n
Published on Mar 25, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n