‘Impact Player Rule is killing the role of an all-rounder’: Jonty Rhodes

Former South African batter Jonty Rhodes feel the impact player rule is killing the role of an all-rounder in the Indian Premier League. Rhodes, who is currently the fielding coach of Lucknow Super Giants, feels the all-rounder’s role is getting affected for Test and other T20s because of impact player rule.

Impact player rule was introduced in IPL 2023 and since then many cricket experts have criticised the idea. However, the new rule is good from strategic point of view and also good for uncapped Indian players, who get their opportunity on a stage like IPL.

“I am siding myself with the right use of the Impact player rule because players are almost playing with freedom so I’m just worried about the role of an all-rounder because it’s a simple role but plays a vital job in cricket and you need that for test cricket 50 over and all other T20s as well.”

“So I am not a massive fan of that impact player and maybe I’m just not smart enough to work out when the right strategy to use the player is. But again, it’s not my decision when to send a player in, so I’m not losing sleep about it. I’m always up for change and to try things to adapt the game, and make it more exciting and enjoyable. And I think it certainly did that, big scores were put on the board in last season. But I’m still really concerned about the role of the all-rounder, the importance of the role of the all-rounder in T20 cricket, and the Impact Player rule is certainly killing it,” Rhodes told IANS.

Rhodes also shed light on the retention rules and Right to Match card. The new rules are expected to be soon announced by the BCCI before IPL 2025 mega auction. Rhodes said it crucial for a franchise to retain its core players.

“I’m not big involved in the auction set up so it’s not something that I give a lot of thought to. I don’t lose any sleep over right to match that’s for sure. But retention and how many players you can have is obviously questionable because you try and build a culture within a team as a coach. It’s not just the coaching skills, you try and build a culture within a team as a coach i mean it’s not just the coaching skills you try and bring a team culture in and when you’re losing a good part of your team in the mega auctions it’s very tough to do that so so right to match for me is a case of okay. But the question is can we retain more than just two or three or four players because that’s how you build a team culture.”

IPL 2025 mega auction is expected to take place in December.