Mumbai Indians play their first IPL 11 match against Chennai Super Kings.
Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma and chief coach Mahela Jayawardene today hailed the introduction of the Decision Review System (DRS) and a mid-season football-style transfer window at this season of the IPL.
A provision has been made for a short transfer window midway through the campaign for uncapped players and those who have played no more than two matches till the halfway stage of the tournament.
"This is the evolution for the franchise model going forward. It's a great option. The opportunity is there and it's quite new to all franchises to go through the season half-way and discuss how best we can address that," said Jayawardene.
"The mid-season transfer window will give the teams an opportunity to see what they need in the squad and other teams will also be looking at what players they can get. It completely depends on the franchise if a situation comes when we need to get a player or give a player. It is good for the tournament and will add even more value to the tournament," said Rohit.
"DRS is there in international cricket. It's a plus for IPL. Mistakes happen and DRS is a helping hand. I am pleased with that. International players know how to handle it and it will be a good learning experience for the younger players," said Jayawardene about the review system's introduction in the T20 League.
Endorsing the coach's view Rohit said, "It's only good for the game and the tournament. At the end of the day you want right decisions to be made and DRS will only help us get that." Jayawardene further said franchise cricket is adopting some football style strategies but emphasised T20 cricket has only enhanced and improved Test cricket and brought more result-oriented games.
"It's going football way - like transfer, technology being used and investing in younger players is always going to be healthy for international cricket. If you see the Indian white ball team now, most players have come through IPL. It's (international cricket) always healthy. I don't see any problem.
"Skill levels of players have improved because of T20 cricket. See Test cricket now - 80-90 per cent of Tests are result-oriented, which is always good, purely because of the pace at which guys are scoring runs and the skills that the bowlers have to take wickets. All over matches have gone to the fourth or fifth day and then a result has come. All this is healthy for the game," he reiterated.
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 "Rohit Sharma and Mahela Jayawardene")
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