Sunil Gavaskar reveals why he was reprimanded by IPL official

Former Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar has revealed an anecdote about being spoken to by an IPL Governing Council Member for personally writing to captains of the then eight IPL teams, requesting suggestions for improvements in the tournament.

“Many years ago when I was in the IPL Governing Council, I had in my personal capacity written to the captains of the eight franchises asking them how the IPL could be made even better than it was,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid Day. 

Gavaskar stated that he was given an interesting suggestion by Adam Gilchrist, captain of the now-defunct Deccan Chargers, who recommended a format in which teams finishing first and second in the points table would receive another chance at making the finals.

“Most replied and while there was no major suggestion, the one from Adam Gilchrist recommending rewarding the teams finishing one and two another crack at the title with the Qualifier and Eliminator was a unique one,” he added.

Gavaskar revealed that he was ‘pulled up’ by another member of the IPL governing body, who questioned the capacity in which Gavaskar had written to the captains of all teams. Gavaskar said to the concerned person that this was done in his personal capacity and these suggestions would be sent across to the governing council for deliberation. He added that the suggestions were accepted, which gave birth to the Playoff format that is seen in the tournament to this day.

“I was pulled up by a member of the Governing Council, who asked with whose authority I had written to the franchise skippers for their suggestions. I told him that I had written in my personal capacity as a former captain and player with the sole intention of seeing how we could make the IPL even better and didn’t need anybody’s permission to write to them. It was now up to the Governing Council to accept or not. They did and now it’s something that each franchise tries to do. Finish in the top two, so they can get another bite of the cherry,” Gavaskar said.

Gavaskar had served on the governing council of the IPL for the first three seasons. He was made the President of the BCCI for IPL affairs in 2014 after a Supreme Court ruling post the IPL spot-fixing scandal in 2013.