‘IPL’s success is largely dependent on players’ fitness’, Manjrekar after Rohit Sharma’s “workload” concerns

This year, however, there have been concerns over the playing time of the active Indian stars in the league. With the WTC final just weeks away from the IPL and the ODI World Cup also scheduled for later this year in October-November, skipper Rohit Sharma stressed on the need for workload management for Team India players ahead of the tournament.

Rohit had said following India’s last match before the IPL earlier this month –

“It’s all upto the franchises. The franchises own them [the players] now, so we’ve given some indications or some kind of borderline kind of thing to the teams. But at the end of the day it’s up to the franchise and, most importantly it’s the players you know, they have to take care of their own body.”

Rohit had further said – “They [players] are all adults. So they have to look after their body and just if they feel that it’s getting a little too much, they can always talk about it and have a break in one or two games. I doubt [if] that will happen but.” However, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar doesn’t quite agree with the India captain.

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During a pre-season show on ESPNcricinfo, Manjrekar was asked whether Hardik Pandya might need to fine-tune his bowling keeping in mind the World Cup later this year and the former India star had an interesting answer.

Manjrekar said –

“IPL’s success is largely dependent on players’ fitness, and that everyone plays to their best potential. Fans love this tournament, it’s quite popular, so, I’m not a fan of players resting during the IPL so that they can play the World Cup. Because, see, the players can get injured even during international matches. Anything can happen.”

Manjrekar added – “There should be no restrictions on players in IPL. Owners spend money on them and they should have the freedom to use a player as much as they want. IPL should be given a special status in that regard.”