#BoycottIPL trend follows India’s humiliating elimination from T20 World Cup

Team India endured utter humiliation by England in the T20 World Cup semi-final on Thursday following a below-par performance by the Indian bowlers. The merciless English side crushed the Indian team quite easily in Adelaide, outperforming them in every aspect of the game, and securing a spot in Sunday’s title bout against Pakistan. After the massive 10-wicket defeat, Indian fans showered brutal criticism on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

India has advanced to the knockout stages of numerous ICC competitions since the 2015 ODI World Cup. However, they have always come out on the losing end. The Indian squad has underperformed in the later stages of an ICC competition six times so far.

Referring to the scenario, fans pinned their blame on the Indian Premier League (IPL). According to many users, Indian players do not focus on international cricket; they are only concerned about the cash-rich franchise league. Additionally, they made fun of players who excelled in the Indian Premier League but failed to do the same in the Indian outfit.

Numerous memes from all across the country surfaced on different social media platforms.

An angry fan said, “Time to boycott IPL so that Indian players can focus on international cricket. It’s high time now.”

Another user pointed out India skipper Rohit Sharma’s average batting in the world cup and wrote, “He will definitely make comeback in IPL.”

An individual explained, “England players also play IPL but they don’t forget about other formats. Here it looks like Indian players don’t care about other formats, only focusing on IPL just for extreme money and easy fame.”

A disappointed Indian fan stated, “Guys it’s time to seriously boycott IPL, till the time they don’t win an ICC event. The Indian team has lost the will to win matches for the country. No one should have any doubt that Indian cricket has been destroyed because of the IPL.”

A person noted, “Being a big Indian cricket fan I do have a complaint. India always fails to win an ICC tournament !!! And believe it or not, IPL is a big reason for that.”

Here are some other reactions:

However, there was also some noise regarding the allowance of Indian cricketers to feature in overseas franchise tournaments.

During the post-match press conference, India head coach Rahul Dravid warned that though participating in franchise T20 leagues abroad may have its benefits, it could result in the elimination of Test cricket from the nation’s cricketing structure.

Apart from the T20 Blast and The Hundred, England has benefited from other franchise T20 competitions while Indian cricketers only compete in the IPL and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on the home circuit.