Sunil Gavaskar wants the BCCI to get tougher on players who pull out of the IPL after being bought at auction. His remarks came after Ben Duckett, bought by Delhi Capitals for INR 2 crore last year, walked away from IPL 2026 days before it starts to focus on his Test career. He posted an apology to DC fans and left the franchise hunting for a late replacement. The existing penalty mirrors what Harry Brook got: a two-year ban for pulling out ahead of IPL 2025. If applied to Duckett, he wouldn’t be eligible again until 2029. Gavaskar told India Today he gets it Duckett wants to protect his Test spot. Fair enough. But empathy doesn’t fix the problem.
“It is a tough one… one can understand that he wants to focus on his England Test career,” he said. Then came the harder part: “A two-year ban is obviously not working. You have to look at something that will have an impact. As long as it’s not having an impact on the player and his chances of coming back to the IPL, it won’t work.”
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He didn’t suggest what that punishment should look like. He left that to the BCCI. But the message was clear the current rules aren’t making players think twice. Delhi open their IPL 2026 season against Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday, April 1. per Giants in an away game on Wednesday, April 1, to open their IPL 2026 campaign.
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