BCCI is mulling a new feature to be added to the IPL Circus. It’s called power player.
The teams will now not name 11 member playing eleven but will name a 15 member pool. 11 of this will make up the starting team. Teams will be allowed to substitute a player at the fall of a wicket or at the end of an over at any point in the game. The player coming in needs to be part of the pool.
The replacement may be done as per specific requirement of a situation. But,I see teams using this feature to add batting/bowling depth. Team batting first will start with more batsmen and afterwards replacing one specialist bat with a bowler. Similarly ream fielding first will start with more bowlers and replace one of them with specialist bat afterwards.
BCCI is thinking of trying this in upcoming Mustaq Ali tournie and add this next IPL afterwards if results are encouraging.
WHat do you guys about this? How will this impact the game?
As per latest reports - ‘Power Player’ plans are shelved for the time being while special ‘No Ball Umpire’ introduced during next IPL.
The ‘Power Player’ project cannot be pilot during upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy too.
However, an exclusive umpire apart from the regular umpires will be in place to focus only on no balls. And this umpire will not be the third or fourth umpire! Wondering, how many more umpires can ensure a perfect match??
If ‘Power Player’ get added, it will be party time for bookies and match-fixers.
Teams are struggling to lead 11 players successfully. I doubt if they will be capable to use the Power Player to improve their performance or make any difference. It will actually unnecessarily complicate the game.
The board is certainly trying to tweak few rules to bring more excitement to the game. Personally in my opinion I want the Power Player rule to be experimented in this cash rich league. Imagine you need 20 runs off the last six balls and you have Andre Russell sitting in the dug-out as he wasn’t a hundred percent and wasn’t part of the original XI. But now, he can just walk in and go slam-bang and win you the game.
If this rule is introduced the game of cricket will become a much more mentally focused sport. It will depend on the strategies of the captain and the coach as well as the training staff sitting in the Dug Out and you won’t see a ‘Ravi Shastri’ kinda coach sleeping
