MUMBAI: His father once lit up the IPL with his dazzling strokeplay, and now, Virender Sehwag's son Aryavir Sehwag, a budding cricketer who found a place in the Delhi Under-16 squad last season, too is itching to play in the high-profile T20 tournament.
"The IPL has benefited young talent the most. Earlier, nobody got noticed from Ranji Trophy performances and hence couldn’t make it to the Indian team. But now, if you perform well in the IPL and you showcase your talent, then immediately, you get an opportunity to play for the Indian team. Because of the IPL, so many children from smaller states of the country have started taking cricket seriously and try their best to participate in the IPL and strive hard for it. For example, my son is 15 years old and is already working hard to get a chance to play in the IPL,” Sehwag said at a press conference on Thursday, organised by Star Sports to celebrate 15 years of the IPL.
“I think the competitiveness of the IPL has increased to such a level that all the players from different countries want to play in it. The performances they give in the IPL are counted and evaluated in their own countries. For example, David Warner performed so well in the IPL and after that he got to play in the Australian international team and there also he performed well. In addition, the main advantage of the IPL is that we got young players from small cities, who have emerged and performed well by giving their best with the highest level of competitiveness," the India opening great said.
Recalling the first IPL auction, which happened back in 2008 when he was with the Indian team in Australia, Sehwag said, “A lot of time has passed since the inception of the IPL. My children have become adults and they’ve started playing cricket too. But I will never forget the first time we were briefed about this when we were in Australia. Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri approached us and said that there is going to be an Indian Premier League and they were asking for all our rights. So, we were wondering whether the league would be successful or not – what if after giving away our rights we do not gain anything from it. But they assured us that the coming years will be very big for cricket in India and whatever rights we grant to this league, we will be able to earn much more than that. Money was secondary at the time, but we didn’t know that the league would give rise to so many youngsters who would one day replace us and become stars.”
The event was also attended by former India off-spin ace Harbhajan Singh and ex-allrounder Irfan Pathan. Harbhajan spoke about how the cash-rich T20 league has helped uncapped Indian players become household names.
“The number of youngsters who have got an opportunity would have never thought they would get to share the dressing room with Sachin Tendulkar, Pollock, Shane Warne. When a young cricketer’s family watches him on TV playing alongside Shane Warne, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni, then there is this feeling of satisfaction among the family as well that the youngster’s hard work has been fruitful. This was possible only because there was a broadcaster. If there was no television, nobody would have been able to put a face on a player from any team. Today, we know every IPL player’s name and face because of television,” Harbhajan said.
