England batter Harry Brook was slapped with a two-year ban from taking part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) last week. Brook faces the ban because of his last minute decision to withdraw from the cash-rich league and emphasise on playing for England, which remains his current "priority and focus".
A note to all ten franchises by the governing council of IPL last September read: "Any [overseas] player who registers for [an] auction and, after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season will get banned from participating in the IPL/IPL auction for two seasons." The note added that an exception will be considered in case of "injury/medical condition, which will have to be confirmed by the [player's] home board."
Weighing-in on Brook's IPL ban, England's spin duo Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid backed BCCI for taking strict action against the English batter.
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"It's not harsh. I kind of agree with it in a way because a lot of people do that," Moeen said while speaking on the podcast Beard Before Cricket. "A lot of people have done it in the past and then they come back in and they end up getting a better financial package, or whatever it is.
"And he (Brook) kind of messed a lot of things up as well at the same time. I mean it messed his team up (Delhi Capitals) obviously by pulling out. Any team that loses Harry Brook is messed up a bit and they've got to now rejig everything and stuff like that.
"Forget him for a second but if you do pull out the rule is that you get a ban unless it's for family reasons or due to injury or something. If it's injury or something, it's different. But I think if you just pull out, then it's… I kind of agree with the teams. You actually mess a lot of stuff up. He's a top player. They've probably picked the team around him, and then all of a sudden, you're pulling out," the ex-Chennai Super Kings all-rounder said.
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Meanwhile, Rashid, who was also part of the panel, also echoed similar views, stating that the rules in place is to reduce such practices. "They actually put that rule in place before and then this happened. So, you know when you're going in this is the rule. So when you put your name in you know if you pull out this is going to happen. So you know the consequences of it. So I don't think it's harsh."
"Not just him (Harry Brook) but this has been going on for, I don't know, for a little while I reckon. Mo (Moeen Ali) has been in the IPL a lot longer but in the past probably five-ten years a lot of players have been selected generally and have pulled out. So that's why they're trying to stop it that way," said Rashid.
The 26-year-old was signed by Delhi Capitals for Rs 6.25 crore at the mega auction held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last year.
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