Impact Player Rule: BCCI’s Big Decision Ahead of IPL 2025, Rule Removed from Domestic Tournaments

BCCI Removes Impact Player Rule from Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took a big decision on Monday. The board has removed the Impact Player Rule from the domestic Twenty20 competition Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) ahead of IPL 2025.

There was a strong possibility that this rule could be removed from domestic cricket. However, this rule will remain in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The BCCI had informed all IPL franchises that this rule will be retained for the next season of IPL. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will start from November 23 and will run till December 15. The BCCI has said, “The BCCI has decided to abolish the ‘Impact Player’ Rule this season.” The board has retained the decision to allow bowlers to throw two bouncers in an over in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

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Understanding the Impact Player Rule

• Under the impact player rule, the team names 4 substitute players before the toss.
• Any one of these players can be used during the match.
• However, the team could use the impact player only before the 14th over of the innings.
• Under this rule, a player had to go out and the impact player came on the field in his place.
• After this, the player who went out could not be included again during the match.

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Past Uses of the Rule

The impact player can be brought on the field only after the end of an over when a wicket falls or a player gets injured. This rule could not be used in the middle of the match. An impact player could be used in place of a batsman who has finished batting or a bowler who has bowled his quota of overs.

If the match was of 10 or fewer overs, then this rule was not applicable. No team was bound to follow this rule. With this rule, the team got 1 extra bowler or batsman. If a player had a bad day, then the impact player would compensate for it to some extent.

Earlier in the year 2005, ICC had tried this rule of substitute. Then it was known as ‘Super Sub’. There is such a rule in Big Bash as well. In Australia’s T-20 league, it is known as X Factor.