While the use of the impact player role in the Indian Premier League has drawn criticism from several big names, including Indian captain Rohit Sharma, Cricket South Africa is reportedly considering introducing it in the SA20 from next season.
The rule was implemented in the IPL last year. It allows teams to swap a player – batsman or bowler – during their respective innings as per the requirements of the game situation. For example, Kolkata Knight Riders decided to use Manish Pandey as a batsman during their game against Mumbai Indians earlier this season.
Until this game, Pandey had not played a single game in IPL 2024. However, with KKR reeling at 57 for 5, he was deployed as a batsman and scored a crucial 42 runs while sharing a match-winning stand of 83 runs with Venkatesh Iyer.
While the rule has definitely made games more entertaining for fans as teams have scored runs for fun this season, several players and experts have expressed their concerns. Last month, Rohit expressed concern over the rule and said it was holding back the development of all-rounders.
“I generally feel like it will hold back [development of allrounders] because ultimately cricket is played by 11 players, not 12 players. I’m not a big fan of impact players. “They take so much out of the game only to make it unentertaining for people around,” Rohit had said this on the Club Prairie Podcast, co-hosted by former cricketers Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan.
“But if you look [at] really just the cricket aspect of it…. I can give you so many examples – guys like Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube don’t get to bowl, which is the case for us [India team] is not a good thing,” he added.
SA20 for the implementation of the Impact Player Rule:
According to a report in Cricbuzz, CSA has shown interest in implementing the Impact Player Rule in the next edition. The report states that the board wanted to implement it itself last season but ultimately decided against it as the auctions had already concluded and franchises were unable to build their rosters with impact player considerations. to put together a rule.
The rule will be on the agenda when administrators of the South African tournament meet to plan the 2025 edition. This meeting will take place after the ICC publishes its updated playing conditions, which are usually published on October 1st. If the rule is approved, SA20 will likely implement it.