The eye-catching and hard-hit Indian cricketer (former) Virender Sehwag never held back from smashing boundaries and still doesn’t hold back from bluntly bashing out facts. Recently, Virender Sehwag opined that the offers provided by the Indian Premier League (IPL) to its players cannot be compared to what the overseas franchises offer. Even the most top-notch or emerging players throughout the world get drawn to involve themselves in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Players from India are not allowed to participate outside their leagues. From a financial point of view, the Indian Premier League (IPL) offers its players a huge amount of fortune. So, it is obvious that Indian players whether it may be reputed or make an appearance, won’t opt for such an insignificant amount of money. Moreover, the BCCI and the state associations have encouraged incentive schemes financially aiding uncapped players.
Virender Sehwag’s shocking statement on overseas leagues
In a recently surfaced video of Virender Sehwag alongside Adam Gilchrist from Club Prairie Podcast, Sehwag was asked if there is a possibility of Indian players potentially playing in the overseas leagues. The former Indian opener didn’t mind speaking the truth as to why would they think about playing in the overseas leagues if they were making such big fortunes. And even if the BCCI agreed to their participation, such leagues couldn’t afford Indian Players. He shared his personal experience where once he was offered a deal from a BBI franchise.
“No! Why? No need. We are rich people, we don’t go to poor countries. I still remember that when I retired from the Indian team, not retired but dropped and was playing IPL, I received an offer to participate in Big Bash. I said that okay how much money you are offering? They said some $100,000. I replied I can spend that much money on my holidays,” Sehwag said.
“Going out for one month playing Big Bash or The Hundred, where you get only that $100,000, maybe $200,000. If you talk about millions, yes then I’m interested otherwise no,” Sehwag further stated.
Maximum overseas leagues around the world have a draft system presented with different tiers following the price bracket. If compared between the BBL draft and the IPL auction, the highest amount in the former was 2.2 crore, while the salary cap was 16.2 crore. In the meantime, during the 2024 IPL mini-auction, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc snatched away ten times of the amount offered by the BBL.
We’ll love to have you on our panel.’ I said ‘You can’t afford me- Virender Sehwag recalls rejecting Sky Sports’ offer
Since his retirement, Sehwag’s been active in the business and is responsible for running a school under his name. He still carries on to be a prominent figure featured to be in advertisements and well known as a cricket pundit.
“So once I got a call from Sky Sports that ‘ We’ll love to have you in our panel.’ I said ‘You can’t afford me.’ But they said, ‘No, give me your price’. I said ‘You can’t afford me but they said ‘ Please give us the price’. Then I said okay ‘10,000 a day’ and they said, ‘Yes you’re right we can’t”, Sehwag said.
Similarly, various famous former Indian players like Sourav Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik have presented themselves on the Sky Sports panel in recent times.