In club vs country, it's the player's call: IPL CEO

As the club vs country debate heats up in the wake of Gautam Gambhir's injury controversy, Indian Premier League CEO Sundar Raman on Friday said no player is forced to make a choice between the two and it is completely his call in such a situation.

"I think it has always been up to the player to decide. Firstly, he has to see whether he is fit or not. And the BCCI physio will take a look at the player and subject to a satisfactory report, he plays," he told ESPNcricinfo.

"The player knows his body better than anyone else does and I don't think I want to sit in judgement on that. If the physio believes that the player is not fit to play a game, he would report that and the player would not play the game.

"Nobody is forced to play. Nobody is forced to play for the country. Nobody is forced to play for their club," he asserted.

Gambhir's shoulder injury, which he picked up during the World Cup and aggravated during the IPL, has led to a debate on whether the players are risking their international careers for the Twenty20 league's riches.

Raman refused to comment on the Gambhir controversy, merely stating that, "I am honestly not in a position to comment on the Gambhir situation because the Indian physio has to see Gambhir, submit his report, take a view on whether he was fit not fit so it is too premature for me to say right now."

But he insisted that no player would put his international career at stake by playing through serious injury.

"I don't think any player would want to carry or feign an injury and continue to go and play. A player knows his body. I believe they are professionals and if the player is injured, if there are any practices or processes that have not been put in place, that is for the administrative part of it to ensure that all of that is taken care of," he said.

"The player takes the view of somebody who is an expert in that field and I think that's the way it is. I am looking at it as what would I have done? I would have listened to my body," he explained.