Cricket News

New Concept of ‘Impact Player’ will take Indian T20 League 2023 by storm – Reports

The Indian T20 League 2023 season is expected to be an exhilarating affair with the tournament set to take place in the home and away format first time after 2019. To add more spice to the upcoming edition, the Indian Cricket Board has decided to include an ‘impact player’ in every team who can be used as a substitute for a regular player in the playing eleven. The concept is similar to the substitution model which is used in Football.

The Indian Cricket Board implemented the tactic in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The Indian T20 League governing council members had a virtual meeting on Thursday and there were discussions to introduce the Impact Player concept – a move that received a positive response from domestic coaches and players, according to a report in The Hindu.

According to the rules, along with the starting XI, teams will have to mention four substitutes or Impact players at the time of the toss. Among these, only one can be used during the match. A player can replace any member of the starting XI at any point before the end of the 14th over of either innings and will be able to bat and bowl his full allotment of overs.

However, the Impact Player rule is not applicable when the game is reduced to less than 10 overs per side. Earlier, Delhi All-rounder Hrithik Shokeen was the first such player who helped his team beat Manipur in the Syed Mushtaq Ali league match in Jaipur in October.

Indian T20 League mini-auction to take place on December 23

“With the ever-growing popularity of T20 cricket, it is imperative that we look at introducing new dimensions which will make this format more attractive and interesting not only for our viewers but also the participating teams from a strategic viewpoint,” the Hindu had quoted Indian Cricket Board as saying in a statement to the state units earlier this year.

“The Indian Cricket Board would like to introduce the concept of ‘Impact Player’ wherein participating teams could replace one member of its playing XI during a T20 match based on the context of the game,” the statement said.

Earlier, the Indian Cricket Board had announced that a total of 991 players have registered for the upcoming Indian T20 League 2023 auction. The deadline for the play registration closed on November 30th as 714 Indian players put their names in the upcoming season of the cash-rich league. While a total of 277 overseas players also registered their names for the auction. The auction will take place on December 23 in Kochi.