Indian players must be allowed to play in overseas T20 leagues: Adam Gilchrist

Adam Gilchrist feels that it's high time that the BCCI changes its policy and allows the current India players to go and play in overseas T20 leagues. "It will be wonderful (If the Indian players are allowed to play in overseas T20 leagues). I personally feel that it won't diminish or damage the IPL, it will only grow it.

If they (the Indian players) can play in Australia or South Africa... but the challenge is that we are all playing our domestic season at the same time, so that is a hard thing, isn't it? The power of the dollar has carved out a window for the IPL. I get that it will be nice if other nations were given some ability for their T20 competitions and their cricket to prosper.

It's a two-way street," Gilchrist said at a New South Wales Government event on Friday. "I really want to highlight six seasons (that I played in the IPL). I loved it, it was a great experience.

It is the premier T20 competition in the world, but it is important to allow other boards and countries to prosper as well. It can't be all about one country's cricket, I think that is really important. I am not accusing them of it, but it is important," Gilchrist, who scored 5,570 runs in 96 Tests and 9,619 runs in 287 ODIs, said.

Explaining his point of view, Gilchrist said, "I think the IPL has been a wonderful addition to the cricketing landscape, I played six (editions) of them and I loved it. I need to state that there needs to be a lot of thought put into private owners starting multiple teams in multiple tournaments and about what effect that will have on international cricket potentially. It might be a great thing, it might be a really bad thing, I don't know the answers.