IPL too good an opportunity to pass up Premium

IPL too good an opportunity to pass up

Last year, it was Corbin Bosch, the South African all-rounder. This year, the list has grown longer by one, for now — Blessing Muzarabani, the towering Zimbabwean paceman who had a wonderful T20 World Cup, and Dasun Shanaka, the all-rounder who led Sri Lanka in the same tournament which concluded earlier this month.

We are talking about the late shift of players from the Pakistan Super League to the Indian Premier League. It isn’t just a late shift, it’s about severing one contract at the last minute to sign a more lucrative deal to be a part of inarguably the most visible franchise-driven T20 competition in the world.

From 2025 onwards, there has been an overlap in dates between the PSL and the IPL. Last year, that was necessitated by Pakistan hosting the Champions Trophy in February-March, though the tournament was also played in Dubai. This year, the PSL had to be postponed from its pre-2025 window owing to the T20 World Cup, which ran in India and Sri Lanka between February 7 and March 8.

The only window available for the Pakistan Cricket Board to conduct the PSL coincided with the IPL; the PSL is due to start this Thursday, two days before the IPL kicks off at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru locking horns with 2016 winners Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Shanaka. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Bosch, part of the Diamond category, had been picked up by Peshawar Zalmi for PSL 2025 before he moved to Mumbai Indians as an injury replacement for fellow South African Lizaad Williams. Understandably miffed at this late ‘desertion’, the PCB slapped a one-year ban on the now 31-year-old, making him ineligible to play in PSL 2026.