Former South Africa batter AB de Villiers, the SA20 Ambassador, is also not a fan of the impact player rule, which has elicited polarising reactions ever since its inception in the Indian Premier League (IPL) a couple of years ago. Several cricketers, such as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, have voiced their concern regarding the rule. The major issue with the impact player rule is that it hampers the involvement of all-rounders as more and more teams look to play specialist batters or bowlers, depending on the situation of the match.
For his part, De Villiers gave a balanced response to whether the rule should be implemented in South Africa’s T20 tournament, whose third edition gets underway on January 9.
The impact player rule, implemented in IPL 2023, allows teams to bring in a substitute at any time for a player in the initial starting XI. This rule led to skyrocketing team scores in IPL 2024, as the total of 250+ was breached several times.
“I’ve never been a big fan, to be honest, and I did speak about it at the IPL in that last season. I feel it’s a bit confusing. It also puts a bit of pressure on the all-rounders and their role in the teams,” said AB de Villiers while replying to a Hindustan Times query during a virtual media interaction.
“I mean, from the outside, it looks exciting, but actually, when the game takes place, I’ve never found it to be a good thing to have in cricket. So, I mean, you can try it out, and the SA20, they’ve always been open to new ideas and new rules, which I find good,” he added.
However, AB de Villiers feels that the impact player rule provides a new dynamic to the sport as it reduces the impact of the toss. Being able to come up with two playing XIs due to this rule, has impressed the South African great.
“I do like the fact that you don’t have to put out, or rather, you can put out two teams at the toss, and the minute you win or lose the toss, you can sort of hand out a different sheet. I’m a fan of that and I believe in that because the more we get the toss not to play a role in cricket, the better for the game and I feel that is a nice way of countering it,” said AB de Villiers.
“If you lose the toss on a difficult wicket or a turning track, you have the opportunity to change your team or to hand in a different sheet. So, I’m a fan of that, and obviously, there’s lots of room for improvement with regards to the room for experimentation. So, that can always happen, and I know Graeme Smith has always had a trick up his sleeve with regards to that. They do try out new stuff. So, I’m excited to see what will come from season three,” he added.
‘Nothing wrong to have IPL as the sounding board’
The South Africa and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) legend also feels there is nothing wrong with SA20 constantly being compared to the IPL, saying it is nice to have a good sounding board. It is important to state that all teams in SA20 are owned by IPL franchises.
“I don’t think it’s a problem to have the IPL as a soundboard to look up. Learn from the mistakes that the IPL made, they did not make a lot of mistakes as the tournament kept growing as the time went on. But maybe, use the contacts you have. Graeme Smith has a lot of friends in India and within the BCCI, he can find out the obstacles they faced with the IPL in 2008-2014,” said de Villiers while replying to another Hindustan Times question.
“I think it’s great to have the IPL as a front-runner and to learn from that front-runner. A lot of sportspeople do. I did that during my playing days, I learnt from guys like Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist. There is nothing wrong with it. There will come a time when you have to breathe by yourself and for SA20, maybe it will come in 2-3 years. For now, it’s great to have the IPL as a soundboard on how to move forward,” he added.
England Test captain Ben Stokes was supposed to turn up for MI Cape Town in the third edition of SA20. However, an injury during the New Zealand Test series resulted in Stokes giving the tournament a miss.
AB de Villiers feels Stokes’ absence will be a big miss, but he saw some light at the end of the tunnel. It’s better that way than him being here and not playing at all. So, I’m happy with the fact that there’s clarity around it. Obviously, we would have loved to have him involved in the tournament,” said AB de Villiers.
“We do have some of these other English friends in the tournament. So, it’s great to have an English player here as well and some players from all over the world. But yes, Ben Stokes is a big loss, but at least there is clarity. For instance, in that one IPL, I don’t think he played a game or perhaps one, and I think that almost does more damage than anything else. So, it’s nice that there’s clarity around it. Yes, it’s a big miss, but hopefully next season he will be here again,” he added.
