As Harbhajan Singh Questions IPL Scheduling, India Great Says “16-17 IPL Games…”

Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh recently questioned the scheduling of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), considering that the T20 World Cup kicks off a week later after the final of the cash-rich league. Harbhajan suggested that the BCCI got scheduling all wrong and also stressed the need for playing at least 4-5 practice games before India’s opening game of the campaign against Ireland in New York on June 5. However, former India captain Anil Kumble had a different view on the matter.

“Yes, I believe it would have been better for them to have 4-5 games, you know collectively playing against some top team like England or Australia in America, just to get used to those conditions. But that doesn’t seem to be happening. But now, whatever small window we have, those two games, we have to make the best use of it. Going forward, it is a great suggestion. When you are playing a tournament like the World Cup or WTC, the team should play together for 10-15 days, it will be better,” Harbhajan had said during a discussion on Star Sports.

The legendary leg-spinner feels there’s no better way to prepare for the T20 World Cup than grinding it out in IPL.

“With regard to the Indian players, people who are not part of the playoffs will certainly be going early, and the guys who will be playing or who will be part of the playoffs will leave immediately after the IPL. So I don’t see any reason why the preparation should be different. I don’t think there’s any issue with that,” Kumble said in a different discussion on Jio Cinema.

Kumble suggested that playing 16-17 IPL games is more than enough to prepare for the T20 World Cup, and also pointed out that some of the Indian players will leave before the IPL final, especially with their teams out of IPL playoffs race.

“You can’t get a better sort of preparation for the World Cup than playing in an IPL where you played either 14 matches or 16 or 17. So, in that sense, you’ve prepared really well in this tournament in terms of any situation and under pressure you played. So it’s a good sort of understanding of where your game is and going into the World Cup,” he added.