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In a communication to the franchises, BCCI has clarified the situations when a partial replacement is permitted and has spoken of creation of a pool called the Registered Available Player Pool as well.
Did you know: IPL allows partial replacement of players (Picture credit: BCCI)
The Indian Premier League has had some unique replacement rules since its inception, with franchises being provided with massive leverage in case of a player sustaining an injury which might see him being ruled out of the entire season.
While one may assume that temporary arrangements are not permitted, BCCI has made provisions for unique situations where partial replacements are allowed, according to a report in Cricbuzz.
In a communication to the franchises, BCCI has clarified the situations when a partial replacement is permitted and has spoken of creation of a pool called the Registered Available Player Pool as well.
The team can just take players from the pool for replacements. The concept of the pool has been defined as well.
Meanwhile, where all the wicketkeeper’s in a team’s registered squad are unavailable for a game then such team should ask BCCI for a special exemption.
In such situations, BCCI would look on a request to permit one short-term replacement wicketkeeper from outside such team’s registered squad to be brought into its squad until any of one of the specialist wicketkeepers in that squad becomes available to play at which point such short-term replacement wicketkeeper might no longer play for the relevant team.
“In such circumstances, the franchisee shall immediately inform the BCCI upon any of its specialist wicketkeepers becoming eligible to play after any such period of unavailability. If one of the unavailable wicket keepers in a franchisee’s Registered Squad is an Overseas player and that Franchisee has its full quota of 8 Overseas players, the Replacement Player may not be an Overseas player,” the communication says.
As per the managers of the IPL teams quoted by Cricbuzz, this is a unique provision. There is no recorded instance of any franchise having utilised it in the last 17 seasons.
Moreover, a player who suffers a season-ending injury might be replaced even if he has already played in a league game during that season if the said injury or illness occurs during or before the 12th league game of the relevant franchise in the season.
IPL 2025 begins on Saturday, March 22, with defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders taking on Royal Challengers Bengaluru.