According to a report on the Times of India, the IPL franchises are not very keen of allowing players to take part in the All-Stars match. Commercially it is not viable and hence the problem.
Commercial problem
Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president announced an all-stars IPL game ahead of the IPL 2020. While thus news makes the league fans happy, the franchises are arguably not echoing the excitement. As the format suggests the players from various teams will feature in South-West and North-East India. A report on the Times of India however suggests that the franchises are not sure of releasing players for the same game.
A franchise owner told the TOP that the match will not feature the sponsors and therefor they cannot allow the players. “Commercially, we are not okay if players don’t wear our jersey (regardless of an All-Star game),” said the owner.
Impact on team bonding
Another owner added that this might affect the preparation of the league. He explained that that the only time the players get to know each other so the franchise does not want to allow them for all-stars match. “Sharing a player just days or a week before the start of the IPL doesn’t make sense. A player will have to miss out on team bonding exercises and travel that much more. There’s only that much time that players — who arrive from all over the world — get to bond with each other before the start of the tournament. It doesn’t make sense,” another owner told the Daily.
The game will probably take place on March 26 at a venue, yet to be disclosed. A source said that these involvements might have certain risks. He said to the TOI, “Once there’s clarity on who’ll be India’s board representative at ICC, that individual will also have to be at the ICC meetings. They’ll have to take a re-look at the starting date of the IPL once again.”
