Despite retiring from two formats, Virat Kohli remains the biggest name in world cricket. It hasn’t been even a month since Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket and two cricket boards have shown interest in him playing in their country.
Middlesex wanted him to play in the County Championship for them. Now, Cricket Australia (CA) hopes that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) changes its rule to allow non-retired Indian cricketers to feature in leagues outside of India.
Virat Kohli in BBL?
CA CEO Todd Greenberg hopes that Kohli will play in the upcoming season of the Big Bash League (BBL). Although not everyone likes the superstar for his in-your-face attitude, Australians seem to adore him. Recently, Greg Chappell called him the most Australian non-Australian cricketer.
“That’s certainly some conversations that we will continue to have with the BCCI. I mean, I would love to see Virat Kohli playing in the BBL this year. That would certainly create some interest in crowds and ratings, I’m sure. But at the moment, that’s not happening, but we do have our ambitions to do those types of things. And as you’re seeing all over the world, T20 leagues are going down a lot of the private investment opportunities,” Greenberg said in a virtual media interaction by CA.
It doesn’t seem likely that BCCI will change its rules. But if it happens, we might see a showdown between Kohli and star Australian players like Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith, who have retired from ODIs, the only format Kohli still plays.
“We’re seeing that in England recently with The Hundred. A number of the IPL franchises are now taking ownership stakes in The Hundred. We’ve got to continue to evolve and innovate the way we run our business here in Australia and making sure that we have an open mind to new things. But the short answer to that question is if we could find opportunities for Indian cricketers, either retired, recently retired, or current players, to play in the BBL, they’d be very welcome, and it’s a conversation we’ll continue to have,” Greenberg added.
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