Soon after MS Dhoni drew curtains on his glittering career, Suresh Raina too followed the footstep of his Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain as the southpaw announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15.
The iconic duo, in their playing days, formed a strong lower middle-order and was involved in too many match-winning partnerships for India. Both of them will be next seen donning CSK jersey in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Raina, meanwhile, has expressed his interest in playing various franchise-level T20 tournaments apart from IPL. However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has restricted its players from featuring in other leagues apart from the IPL.
A couple of months ago, the 33-years-old talisman urged the apex cricketing body to allow the Indian cricketers to feature in foreign leagues like Big Bash League (BBL).
“I hope the BCCI can get together with the ICC or with franchises and allow players who don’t have BCCI contracts to play in overseas leagues,” Raina said in an Instagram Live chat.
“Yusuf (Pathan), myself, Robin Uthappa – a lot of quality players (could) … go overseas and learn a lot. We aren’t in the BCCI contracts list, some of us don’t have IPL contracts,” he added.
“We aren’t playing international cricket, and the competition in domestic cricket isn’t what it is at the international level.”
Raina further remarked that featuring in such leagues will bring a lot of improvement on fringe players, who are aiming for an international comeback.
“If we can get three months of quality cricket, whether it’s the CPL or the Big Bash … it can help us stay ready (for a national call-up),” he said.
“Players from other countries are able to play in these leagues, and a lot of them have made international comebacks after doing well in them,” Raina concluded.
