There is a tidal shift occurring in cricket at the moment, one that is on course to change the landscape of the sport.
Billionaire investors are turning their attention to the game, sensing an opportunity to profit from the second-biggest sport in the world and intend to take it with both hands through the form of franchise cricket.
It feels hard to comprehend as an Australian that cricket, where the pinnacle of achievement is winning the Ashes or an away Test series in India, could ever become what football is today – a sport that is club first, country second – but indeed all roads are pointing towards a calendar dominated by domestic T20 leagues.
International bilateral series are set to take a back seat and Test cricket will be squeezing through the cracks to stay relevant, through what will likely be called an international break. Sound familiar?
The International Cricket Council (ICC) can also see the writing on the wall with their desperate attempts to turn otherwise meaningless bilateral matches into qualifiers for World Cups, an idea that is yet to catch the public’s attention.
What they can’t curtail, however, is privatisation. With privately owned T20 leagues popping up like weeds in an unattended lawn, the amount of cricket being played is growing by the day.
This summer alone will see Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL), the UAE International League, South Africa’s SA20 and the Bangladesh Premier League play out.
Then comes the ever-expanding Indian Premier League (IPL), before the Caribbean Super League and England’s The Hundred.
Jasprit Bumrah celebrates a wicket for the Mumbai Indians against Chennai Super Kings. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
At the same time, players are expected to play in two international tournaments, multiple Test series and bilateral white-ball series.
Something has to give. Ben Stokes’ retirement from ODI cricket is merely a sign of things to come.
This is where private ownership comes in.
National teams, especially those outside Australia, England and India, can simply not afford to pay anywhere near the sums of money that their players are offered to effectively join the T20 circuit.
For example, in this year’s IPL, leg-spinner Rashid Khan received 150 million rupee, which is just south of A$2.8 million. This is compared to his national contract with Afghanistan, which adds up to around $135,000. There is simply no way to justify turning down that sort of money from the player’s perspective.
A way that countries have tried to keep control over player priorities is to hold majority ownership over their league, something that Australia does. It’s for this reason, among many others, that the BBL is struggling to attract talent as competition to become the perennial T20 competition behind the IPL heats up.
The league, due to the lack of private equity, fails to offer figures that compete with the likes of the exceedingly rich upstart UAE competition or the revamped SA20, which are both backed by heavyweight private investment.
The problem for the BBL is worrisome, with batter Chris Lynn opting to play in the UAE and star David Warner is reportedly being forced to stay home after Cricket Australia (CA) rejected his no objection certificate (NOC) that would allow him to play elsewhere.
Fellow opener Usman Khawaja has even spoken to the media, warning CA that privatisation is a must for the BBL.
“I personally think, if the BBL wants to be fair dinkum about it, we do need to think about privatising it,” he said during Australia’s recent tour of Sri Lanka.
“If we’re not careful we’re going to be left behind, and you don’t want to do that because the BBL is a great product.”
The path seems clear for CA: privatise the BBL, or fall behind the pack. Not only that, failing to privatise will result in more players like Tim David, who has no state or national contract, and therefore no responsibility towards CA.
While he’s been included in the Australian squad for the upcoming World Cup, David is well within his rights to decline opportunities to play in bilateral series if it means he misses out on a large pay packet. Fortunately for the BBL, David has committed his future to the Hobart Hurricanes for the next two seasons, but the next player might not be so loyal.
As for Test matches, while there is appetite, they will exist. The Ashes will continue, and so will those tough series in India, but outside the so-called “big three” (Australia, England, and India), Test matches will become fewer and further between due to cost and a lack of interest from both players and fans.
It looks a sad reality for those who grew up in the previous era, with the landscape of the sport they grew up loving transformed beyond recognition. It’s a future that will see kids wearing their favourite franchise’s shirt, complaining about the upcoming international break.
It’s a future that will see players get transferred for obscene amounts of money from one team to another after days if not months of speculation surrounding it beforehand. It’s a future where people will argue over who is the better player, Perth Scorchers’ Cameron Green or Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Marco Jansen.
On a positive note, if you love football, you’re sure to love this.
Toolman
Roar Rookie
There is no stopping the Franchise Cricket. They need to work out a path forward. The only hope is the attention span of those who love T20 is short enough to allow International Cricket to still be played and remain relevant. Franchise T20 can grow the game around the world. It can bring enough money in to ensure cricket can thrive. It will enable a player from any nation a chance to make a fine living. It will attract new people to the game. These are major positives for the sport. International Cricket and Test Cricket in particular is sacred. It is an entirely different game to the T20 format. It is a more even contest between bat and ball. It requires patience and resilience. It is the purest form of the game. International One Day Cricket is a format worth persisting with too. The ICC needs to allow 6 months to schedule Franchise Cricket (Jan-Apr & Aug-Sep) and 6 months for International Cricket (May-Jul & Oct-Dec). A January/Feb window for the Australian BBL, the South African T20 League and the UAE International T20 League. A March/April window for the IPL. An August/September window for The Hundred, the new US Major Cricket League and the Caribbean T20 competition. There would be less International Cricket, but with more purpose. Every two years, a T20 International World Cup. This would be the only International T20 Cricket played. In between those two T20 World Cup years would be 4-yearly cycles of Test Cricket and One Day Cricket. The 9 main Test playing nations (Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh) would play a series of 3 ODI's and 2 Test Matches over a 24 day period, against each other, home and away, to determine their positioning for the respective World Cups. The only exception to the above would be The Ashes, which would remain a 5 Test Series and be scheduled every second year as it is now. The One Day World Cup would be very much like it is now. The 9 teams who have played each other in 3 one-day games home and away throughout the period since the last ODI World Cup would be ranked, with the top 6 going through to Group A and the bottom 3 joining 3 qualifiers in Group B. These groups would play a round robin amongst each other to qualify for the "Finals" stage of the tournament. The top 4 of Group A would fill in positions 1-4. The top 2 of Group B would play the bottom 2 of Group A in sudden death finals, in positions 5-8. It would run like the AFL Finals from this point. The Test World Cup would be held every 4 years for 2 months in England containing the top 6 teams from the previous 4 years. They would play each other once in a Test Match with the top 2 playing off in the Final. A second group of nations from 7-12 could play a separate tournament at the same time. A little bit less of everything re International Cricket will hopefully keep Cricket sustainable and interesting and give something for everyone. Franchise Cricket can secure the financial future of the game, without completely taking over and ruining it.
boes
Roar Pro
Watching the current ODI my favourite part is Cam Green's forward defence. It's solid as a rock yet he's brutal when he wants. An old school modern cricketer. I have a man crush.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I believe the ODI Super League will be scrapped after next year.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
EV cars are great, bla bla, and they are. I understand why it's going that way but let's not be fakers. It's just that they are now whitegoods. They're not cars anymore.
Chum
Roar Rookie
What a nonsensical metaphor. EV cars are great. Go chew some more dinosaur bones you old fossil
matth
Roar Guru
It won;t happen now even if the ICC magically went in this direction. the T20 leagues are privately owned. They would just tell the ICC where to stick it. Money would talk, players would walk, even national bodies would ignore them.
The Bush
Roar Guru
"Severely limit ODI’s outside of the world cup and qualifiers if necessary." I've had this debate with someone else on here before matth - this has already occurred. Australia now only plays about 10 ODIs a year. The ODI Super League requires only 24 ODIs be played over a three year period - which equates to just 8 per year - and that is basically all many teams are playing. To be honest, you can't play it much less than this or else you won't be able to build a team for a World Cup as you won't have experienced players and you won't have any idea who your best team is (and they won't have experience playing internationally). There is a single major thing that needs to happen with world cricket and the rest of it will fall into place if that single thing occurs: there needs to be consensus on what the purpose of the ICC and 'cricket' is. If the 'purpose' of the ICC and cricket generally is to make money, then test cricket and the sport itself is doomed. T20 cricket is the junk food of cricket, enticing and enjoyable in small doses, but bad for you in the long run. All short form cricket should be designed only to introduce young people into the sport, but the 'real thing' must always be test cricket. If the purpose is to truly spread a love of the game, then the focus should be on test cricket. Any money the ICC gets, should be used to build FC competitions in poorer countries and support the weaker test teams with funding etc. If that messaging and purpose was clear, then the sport would be fine. Of course to do this, they would need to do some drastic stuff; they need to remove one of the short forms of cricket (have two is simply not sustainable), reduce the number of international 'trophies' that take up so much space and create set windows within which all T20 comps must occur (and they can't go for more than a month). Sadly, this won't happen, it's all about short term dollars and milking the sport for all it's worth.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
CA will end up selling the BBL off. It's really just a question of how long they wait. My money is still on the IPL franchisees getting involved. IPL involvement in Australia would be of huge interest back in India - certainly much more than the UAE. CA's revenue would come from franchise licensing, but also selling it's broadcast rights o/s (i.e. back into India). It's current $200m 5 year deal for selling broadcast rights o/s would probably increase 10 fold. It'll be money CA won't be able to refuse. Or if it does, it'll spend money trying to compete against the BCCI.
Ben Hann
Roar Rookie
Yep I completely agree with that, bilateral white-ball series almost need to be scrapped except maybe preceding a WC, otherwise all breaks in the calendar should be filled with Test cricket, which should include all Test playing nations, not just the big 3
matth
Roar Guru
I agree that this is the direction cricket is heading. Boards around the world need to accept that there will be privately owned clubs playing T20 most of the year round. IPL will be the EPL of cricket. Other leagues will be smaller and maybe feeder leagues, but with the right funding can still be exciting and relevant in their own right. The trick will be maintaining a decent international window and then what we fill it up with. I would consider scrapping international T20's outside of the world cup (although the problem for this is that there will be more countries playing this format than any other, so at the least there needs to be qorld cup qualifiers). Severely limit ODI's outside of the world cup and qualifiers if necessary. Try to keep as much of the window open as posible for test cricket.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Cricket is having it's EV Car moment. T20 is overtaking it all. Bland, sterile cricket in place of all the wonder, colour and texture of Tests. Cars and Cricket were once a form of art. Now they're both an efficient performance matrix, with attendant substrates, lacking in the engagement of their former selves.
Ben Hann
Roar Rookie
My thoughts exactly, lovely having this chat. Cheers.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Exactly a huge part of sports attraction and indeed romanticism is an underdog upsetting the apple cart . A Leicester City defying the odds , a Michael Schumacher winning F1 World titles in a Benetton . A Japan beating South Africa in a World Cup Rugby match .. Can we even remember who won that tournament ? , but we will never stop talking about “that” match . The stuff of folklore . What about the Spirit of Australia in the America’s Cup doing the unthinkable . .Or maybe A Sri Lanka winning an ODI World Cup against all odds . Does Ind , Eng , Aus really want to take that away from themselves for an improved bank balance ? If Space X or Tesla were motivated by purely financial objectives neither would exist today . There surely must still be place in this World for idealism . Cheers .
Ben Hann
Roar Rookie
Yes exactly, saying that cricket is only sustainable if it’s played by the big 3 is like saying the EPL is only fun if the big 6 are the only teams that play…it will quickly become boring, repetitive and meaningless. Which is actually the three words I use to describe T20 cricket ????
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Morning Ben , at least Its morning this side of the pond . Yes I agree it all seems very short term . But I also get that the damage caused by the pandemic restrictions have left SA Cricket in dire straights . Cancelled tours by two of the 3 big money spinners England and Aus didn’t help much either . Throw in some serious financial skulduggery from our previous board ( thankfully seems to being resolved with the new board ) and you have the picture. a good comparison is I have medical insurance which I pay but thankfully seldom use . But my partner paying the same premium uses it a lot . So in effect I’m cross subsidizing her expenses . But that’s a good thing . Never know when it’s my turn . This almost brutal separation of profitable and the not so profitable being excised does not give Cricket that reassurance of a cushion . It’s a profound mistake believing only 3 countries participating meaningfully in Test Cricket is sustainable .
Ben Hann
Roar Rookie
Certainly the situation in South Africa is dicey. I believe that they have tried to justify reducing Tests now so that they can bring in an increased revenue which will in turn allow for more Tests in future? The alignment of SA20 with the IPL is a sign of something greater, where the owners of IPL teams will sign players on central contracts that will allow the player to play for each team that is aligned with them. Unfortunately, there is no onus on private investors to do what is best for cricket rather than what is best for themselves. The horse has bolted as far as I'm concerned when it comes stopping private investment from controlling the game on a global scale.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
I genuinely fear for Test Cricket . South Africa Cricket CEO has admitted that they themselves requested a reduction in Test matches over the next 5 years and in fact have gone for very little Test Cricket . Yet SA although usually having a decent limited overs team , it’s real achievements past 35 years have been in the Test arena .Also all future tours now to be limited to just two matches . Same time we see the launch of SA20 . Here in Johannesburg the local T20 franchise has been named Joburg SuperKings , with financing coming from Chennai SuperKings . The comp is a clear duplication of the IPL . My concern is I don’t think the cricketing administrators understand the negative impact a diluted Test season will have eventually decaying the shorter format too . The motives given are financing and that Test Tours are not profitable. Were they ever really ? That’s not the point . Sometimes cross subsidizing in the interests of longer term benefit makes sense .
Ben Hann
Roar Rookie
My last line was a little bit of tongue and cheek, as I do love football but not necessarily T20 cricket. Unfortunately, for test cricket to survive, national teams need income which predominantly comes from their T20 leagues.
Ben Hann
Roar Rookie
I agree, I think there'll be a lot of people lamenting the way cricket is going, but I think we'll have to make our peace with it if we want to keep test cricket alive.
Grem
Roar Rookie
I do love football, but I don’t like the possibility of cricket’s future that you write about. Test cricket should always be the pinnacle and to have great test cricketers you need a strong Sheffield Shield. From those great players that are developed you can then choose your most talented and adaptable to play 20/20s that are scheduled around test and domestic cricket. As the writer above says - 20/20s are meaningless and should only be treated as an add on. What a shame that money and business may ruin a great game.