Please Let us Go, Honest to God: Uthappa on Indian Players’ Participation in Foreign T20 Leagues

India batsman Robin Uthappa believes that the BCCI should lift the ban on players from competing in overseas T20 leagues.

“Please let us go, honest to God,” Uthappa, 2007 T20I World Cup winner, told the BBC’s Doosra podcast.

“It does hurt when we’re not allowed to go and play.”

The rule bars the Indian players from being a part of lucrative leagues like the BBL and CPL. On the flipside, women players are allowed to participate in such competitions outside India.

“It would be so nice if we could go and play at least a couple of others because as a student of the game you want to learn and grow as much as you can,” said 34-year-old Uthappa.

With the coming of Sourav Ganguly as BCCI president, Uthappa feels that a change might come in this rule now.

“Ganguly is a very progressive thinking human being, someone who has always looked to take India to the next level. He actually laid the foundation for where India cricket is now,” said Uthappa.

“We’re hoping that he will look at this at some point.”

This year’s IPL was supposed to be played from 29 March until 24 May, but was postponed due to coronavirus. Uthappa has appeared in 46 ODIs and 13 T20Is till now in his career and scored 934 and 249 runs respectively. His best performance so far remains to be 86 against England in an ODI.

Earlier, India discard Suresh Raina too had requested the BCCI, to let the non-contracted players participate in T20 league abroad.