BCCI finding ways to guide teenage IPL players

Kolkata, May 22 (IANS) The Indian cricket board is considering ways of helping out under-19 players in the Indian Premier League (IPL), so that they are able to handle the fame and money the tourney brings them and do not go wayward, board interim chief Sunil Gavaskar said Thursday.

A year after the cash-rich league was rocked by the spot fixing scandal, that led to the arrests of Test and ODI cricketer S. Sreesanth and his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, the IPL governing council recommended the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to come up with some guidance programme for the youngsters.

Briefing media after an IPL Governing Council meeting during the day, Gavaskar said the idea had come up from his discussions with four legends of the game - Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Anil Kumble - days after he was put in charge of the league by the Supreme Court in March.

"I had called them to take their advice, as they are current cricketers. We had lot of discussions on what should be done. One of the issues was about guiding the lot of youngsters - 16, 17 or 18 years of age.

"The IPL is a hugely covered event. The youngsters are also getting lot of money. A youngster can get carried away. And then Indian cricket would end up losing the youngster, while the youngster would lose some valuable years," said Gavaskar, himself a legendary former opening bat.

"So, in today's meeting we recommended whether the BCCI can do something about this so as to enable the youngster to take care of such things... on how to handle so much money," he said.

Gavaskar said some of the players now taking part in the IPL ply their trade in other tourneys like the English country cricket during the Indian off season. "But most of them stay put in India. It is this group which can be guided."

To another query, Gavaskar said players like Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid could also be roped in for the purpose.