With the Indian Premier League season a week away, overseas stars are dropping out like flies. Particularly fast bowlers, with names such as Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Nathan Ellis being unavailable for their franchises for select amounts of time.
A big concern for the IPL has been the tendency of overseas players to sign up before being made unavailable, either due to injury or international duty, and sometimes because of personal reasons. One such player to step away for family reasons was New Zealand seamer Lockie Ferguson, who requested personal time away from Punjab Kings at the start of the campaign.
Ferguson has requested for time off to spend with his family, having welcomed a young son this year. However, his unavailability has sparked the ire of Aakash Chopra, who cited him as an example of players who will take advantage of a big paycheck without the responsibility of being available for the team paying him.
“I’m thinking about Lockie Ferguson. Actually, that’s a serious one. Is he injured… I don’t know. Is he injured or not? What I read is he is not available for seven matches. He said, ‘I want to spend some time with family’,” said a bemused Chopra on his YouTube channel.
Chopra confused by decision
“He was picked at base price, right? Bought for 2 crores. He is playing for his team, playing for New Zealand, and then he’ll take a break. He’ll go home and spend time with family,” said Chopra.
Ferguson is currently playing for the Kiwis in their series against South Africa at home, so is certainly fit, but is set to miss the first few weeks of the IPL campaign. “Just had a wee son; trying to spend as much time as I can at home and help the wife out. I’ll have a few weeks off after this before sort of heading to the later stages of the IPL and away for the winter,” he had explained to broadcasters during the third T20I in Auckland.
Chopra understood that element of it, but was more concerned about the predicament it leaves a team like PBKS in, who will now need to plan around Ferguson’s absence.
“It’s not a bad thing. Again, don’t judge anyone. You should never judge anyone. I love spending time with my family. If someone tells me to take a holiday, I say, ‘I’ll take it; I’m going to sit at home.’ I love my family. Whether it’s kids, parents, or my wife… spending time with everyone. I love doing that,” granted Chopra.
‘You’ll come after 7 matches…’
“But if you’ve made a commitment and you’re leaving seven matches just for that in the IPL, then teams will have to realise that this isn’t right,” he countered.
While the IPL does scale the player fees based on availability for overseas players, Chopra’s problem stemmed more from the fact that Ferguson’s involvement may or may not prove to be completely irrelevant to Punjab’s campaign by the time he makes an appearance – rendering the auction fees paid for him as a waste, from a franchise perspective.
“Because you’ll come after seven matches, take 1 crore on a pro-rata basis, and leave. What’s the point? Your team’s season might already be ruined by then,” criticised Chopra.
The IPL begins on March 28, but players such as Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood, Ellis, and now Ferguson won’t be involved, leading to question marks for the teams paying big money for their services.
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