IPL 2019 | Allowance of two minutes for every wicket should be reduced to 45 seconds, suggests Sunil Gavaskar

IPL 2019 | Allowance of two minutes for every wicket should be reduced to 45 seconds, suggests Sunil Gavaskar

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Sunil Gavaskar has put forth an idea to speed up the T20 cricket as he suggested that the allowance of two minutes to the batting teams for every wicket should be reduced to 45 seconds. He has also added that two best captains in India were on show on the last day of the Indian Premier League.

One of the major problems that the IPL suffered this year was slow over-rate and late night finishes. While that impacted the players’ sustainability, taking a toll on their workload management, it also affected the broadcasters as the TRP went down drastically. To counter that issue, Sunil Gavaskar asked the board to take strong action and asked the BCCI to reduce the allowance of two minutes for every wicket to 45 seconds as players sit in the dug-out.

“Far too many games went to almost four hours and that is not acceptable at all. It is understood that the heat and humidity does not make it easy but still matches that are scheduled to finish in 190 minutes - including the strategic timeouts - should finish no later than 200 minutes. Teams that are unable to bowl their overs in time should have a financial penalty as well as a cricketing penalty that makes a difference to their points and the game too,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for the Times of India.

“There are far better cricketing minds than mine who can come up with ideas on how to speed up the game but for starters, the allowance given of two minutes to the bowling teams for every wicket should be reduced to 45 seconds since most incoming batsmen are in the dugout,” he added.

This year’s IPL has to be one of the best in its history as it not only ensured two of the best teams, led by two most successful T20 captains in the country, reached the final. It was also a humdinger of the match as the game went down to the wire and the Rohit Sharma-led team won it by one run. Gavaskar hailed the best IPL season of all.

“After the damp squib of the opening game where the Bangalore team were dismissed for just 70, the way the tournament picked up steam was truly remarkable. However, the organisers will do well to ensure not to have the opening fixture between the defending champions and the bottom-placed team even if that team has a few superstars, for there is the likelihood of the opening game being one-sided. The start must be between the champion team and the runners-up, for that will give it just the take-off the tournament deserves.

“Mumbai Indians have now won it four times under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, making him the most successful captain in IPL history. The two best captains in India were on show on the last day as the game fluctuated one way and the other practically every other over,” the former India captain concluded.

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