'If A Player Doesn't Respect IPL...'

'The IPL is the best T20 league in the world and anybody taking it lightly should not be considered at all.'

Sunil Gavaskar has slammed overseas players who make themselves available for only a limited number of matches in the Indian Premier League, saying such players should not sign up for the auction.

'There are some players who have made themselves available for a limited period. Frankly, if a player doesn't show respect to the IPL and make himself available for the full tournament he shouldn't even be in the auction,' Gavaskar said in his column for the Mid-day newspaper.

'If something, other than national engagement, is more important to him, then not one second of the auction should be wasted on him.

'The IPL is the best T20 league in the world and anybody taking it lightly should not be considered at all,' he added.

Gavaskar was indirectly referring to Australian wicket-keeper-batter Josh Inglis, who was released by Punjab Kings because of his unavailability for the majority of the IPL 2026 season.

Inglis was one of Punjab Kings' top performers last season with 278 runs in 11 matches at a strike rate of 162.57 but Head Coach Ricky Ponting wasn't happy with him missing most of the games.

'Josh Inglis is another one who played some great knocks for us in the back half of the tournament. He missed a few games through the course of the season due to various reasons. He has also made me aware this year that he wasn’t going to be available for the majority of the tournament. So for that reason, I found it pretty much impossible to be able to be able to retain him,' Ponting told Star Sports.

Gavaskar also highlighted a major flaw in the IPL players' auction rules which sees an unsold player in the auction later bag a higher price if he is called up as an injury replacement.

'The other thing that strikes an odd chord is those who are unsold at the auction go for more than their base price in case they are picked as injury replacement players later in the tournament.'

'Never mind if the franchises have money left over but if they are going to replace some player then it's got to be at their base price only and not a rupee more otherwise it's a mockery of the earlier auction.'

Gavaskar also pointed out how some young Indian uncapped players, who are bought for huge prices, are never able to live up to the hype.

'There is still no salary limit on an uncapped player and so many young fairly unknown players will be bought for sums, for playing 16 days of cricket which will be multiple times that of a Ranji Trophy player who plays for double that many days in mostly empty stadiums. The sad part is most, if not all these youngsters bought for huge sums hardly play in the tournament and are lost to the game after a season or two.'

'Have a look at the first price that all those who have gone on to become great players for India. They were all bought at their base prices and were thus hungry to perform and get more. Now have a look at all the uncapped players bought for crores and see where they are now. Maybe there's a lesson in that somewhere.'