At a recent executive meeting of the National Cricket Academy, it was proposed to put a blanket ban on all under-19 players from taking part in the IPL. The idea reportedly met a general consensus, but the matter was deferred for the need to have another round of deliberations and more groundwork before arriving at any decision.

The proposal came in the wake of youngsters’ general interest for the Twenty20 format and changing motivational levels, the subsequent desire to innovate rather than strengthening basic skills and the question over their ability to cope with the demands of constant pressure situations and rigorous travelling.

“Yes, there was a talk on the matter. In fact, there has been a lot of informal deliberation between the members who expressed their fear on the consequences of including under-19 players,” says Sunil Dev, an NCA committee member.

“There’s one question that needs to be answered. The NCA spends lakhs of rupees grooming youngsters form the under-16 stage, holding clinics with specialists emphasising on core skills. After that, it doesn’t make sense to put them straight into Twenty20, where they need to do exactly the opposite. Everybody has agreed to it in principle, but it was decided that there was a need to do further homework on the matter.”

Another NCA official also admitted that under-19 players in the IPL would have to be looked at very closely.

“There’s so much of fame and money involved... and now, with two of the players getting India berths too, the youngsters are concentrating too much on T20 cricket. Under the circumstances, the basic purpose of the NCA would be under threat. If things continue like this, it will be very difficult to find good Test cricketers,” he says.

According to sources, even before the high-profile auction, it was decided that under-19 players would be kept out of the IPL, but with the team winning the under-19 World Cup, president Sharad Pawar put in a special request that these youngsters should also be given a chance on the big stage. Subsequently, the BCCI introduced the draft system.

Though the under-19 batch didn’t set the IPL on fire except in one-off cases, the NCA is torn between the theory of valuable exposure to youngsters — playing with international stars is bound to help — and the damage Twenty20 could do to their basic cricket skills.

Sanjeev Sharma, chairman of the junior selectors, endorses the fact that there is a lot to learn from playing on the big stage, but that “it’s important to ensure that the motivational and skill levels of the players are not waning from ‘real cricket’”.

Interestingly, Sharma had, earlier, proposed that only under-19 with players with a minimum experience of 10 First Class games be allowed to be part of the IPL, because by that time, they would have adjusted to the domestic circuit and it would be easier for them to deal with their successes and failures.