'Please let us go, honest to God'- Robin Uthappa pleads BCCI to allow Indian cricketers play in foreign leagues

BCCI’s stance of not allowing Indian cricketers to play in the foreign T20 leagues is becoming the talk of the town. Earlier, Suresh Raina and Irfan Pathan had shown their displeasure over the same. Now, Robin Uthappa, the right-handed batsman has come out and requested the Indian cricket board to allow contracted or non-contracted players to feature in other leagues.

T20 cricket has attracted lots of fans across the globe due to its competitiveness and fast-paced nature. Like BCCI, many other cricket boards have tried to cash-in the interest of the fans by introducing different leagues. However, no Indian cricketer is allowed to play in any of those tournaments until they retire from the game.

It is well known that the Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the biggest T20 competitions in the world. Meanwhile, there are other tournaments like Big Bash League (BBL), MSL etc that have also stolen the show to an extent. But, the Indian board has not permitted any of their players to feature in overseas tournaments.

Robin Uthappa echoes Suresh Raina’s voice

In an interview with the BBC, Robin Uthappa literally pleaded to the BCCI to allow players with the permission to play in other tournaments. As per him, it will be a great step if Indian cricketers can go out and learn more about the game. He added that every player is a student of the gentlemen’s game and it is necessary to grow every day as a player.

“Please let us go, honest to God. It does hurt when we’re not allowed to go and play … 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,” Uthappa said. He recited that Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI chief is a great and admiring personality. According to Uthappa, he will one day have a look at this situation that will be great from the players’ perspective.

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