International cricket seems to be dying a death of a thousand cuts. Not the good kind like David Boon’s Gray Nic sending a Curtly Ambrose short ball to the point boundary.
The latest blow to the global game is the news that the BCCI is considering a second version of the IPL each year, fuelled by Saudi Arabian oil money from its Public Investment Fund.
By staging a second competition each year, playing it under different rules in a T10 or 100-ball format, it could be a vehicle for India to take on a huge injection of Saudi money while keeping ownership of their premier sporting league.
The IPL is already the second biggest sporting competition in the world behind the NFL and unlike America’s footballers who have a limited season, there is an ever expanding timeframe for India to cash in on the T20 revolution.
And what will fall by the wayside? International cricket, of course.
Cricket is heading the way of tennis and golf where the calendar will have a few tentpole events at the same time of year with the circuit/circus moving around the globe to lesser tournaments outside of the “grand slams/majors”.
Saudi Arabia’s controversial, yet ultimately successful, sportswashing move into golf, football and Formula 1 means more and more sports will be in their sights as both playthings for the crown prince and shiny diversions away from their horrendous human rights record.
Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins made headlines earlier this week when they fetched price tags either side of the $4 million mark in the IPL auction. Those astronomical numbers will pale into comparison with the fortunes that will be thrown at cricketers in the coming years if golf and football are any guide.
Tests and international cricket will never die but if there’s another IPL window in September-October, it will eat up more space and players will find it hard to knock back contracts with telephone number amounts.
ICC events like World Cups or World Test Championship finals will slot in around the IPL tournaments with the lower-profile leagues, a lot of them also bankrolled by Indian corporations, in the US, South Africa, Caribbean and Saudi Arabia (them again) will fill the remaining months.
Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
India, Australia and England will still devote resources to their bilateral series against each other but the two-way contests between other nations will be played in the background (even more so than they are nowadays) as little more than filler for cricket’s global market.
Players from nations outside the Big Three have seen the writing on the wall for a long time. Several of the West Indies’ biggest names gave up Tests and then all international duty ahead of time to become T20 guns for hire.
All-rounder Jason Holder opting out of the upcoming Test series in Australia is a canary in the coalmine moment. The veteran has been one of the Windies’ few stalwarts in recent years, holding the fractured cricketing nation of independent island states together.
But there comes a time in every player’s career when they realise time is running out and the prestige of the famous maroon cap doesn’t compare to a T20 contract when it comes to being financially rewarded for your toil.
Other elite players like Quinton de Kock (at 29) and Wanindu Hasarangu (26) have prematurely given up the longer forms of the game to focus on T20 leagues.
Starc’s decision to bypass the IPL for nearly a decade to preserve his body for Australian honours still isn’t given due credit, given that he has potentially cost himself $10-15m over the years to focus on giving his all at international level in all three formats.
If it’s not too late already for the ICC to wrest back control of the sport, it’s about two seconds to midnight on that front.
Jasprit Bumrah celebrates a wicket for the Mumbai Indians against Chennai Super Kings. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Golf’s split over the LIV versus the traditional tour has damaged reputations but the average fan doesn’t seem to particularly care about their sport being used as a PR tool for the Saudis.
When the LIV tour came to Adelaide earlier this year there was little backlash and a lot more hooting and hollering about the revenue it brought to the South Australian capital and on the course by fans happy to see top-line talent and get drunk doing so.
Greg Norman has copped plenty of grief for being the face of LIV but, not that he needs the extra cash, he’s been well compensated and doesn’t seem too fussed by the criticisms about turning a blind eye to Saudi’s bloodshed.
Cricket’s current overhaul is not as abrupt as the Packer revolution of the 1970s but its gradual transformation will change the way the game is played forever.
matth
Roar Guru
But what about the rest of the world not being able to see top class cricket as the IPL’s season expand and expand? Good for India, good for oil nations. Not for anyone else
AndreD
Roar Rookie
Agree 100%, Curran's behaviour was childish, petulant, and potentially risky to both invoved. 12 game ban in all forms of PAID cricket! I used to like him. No more. Apalling behaviour. Imagine if this was an Aussies at Headingly or Lords! Oh the outcry. Curran, you're a childish tool.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Only a rumour at this stage
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
In terms of sporting wages Indian cricketers are not highly paid but have some high earners from endorsements. Its like tennis if your from a richer country then you earn a lot more than other tennis players from small countries in endorsements like Naomi Osaka. Thats a double whammy though, not only do you not get paid well if your outside the big three, you dont pick up the endorsement money. The reason cricketers get paid a pittance is to do with IPL and BCI running a monopoly on the money. They have a couple of highly paid players and make big pubilicity but its a mirage the total salary cap per team is 18m and lots of players on next to nothing. So 180m is the total salaries in the IPL in Australia dollars. So they get paid about 10% of the revenue that would be easily the worlds lowest . Even the AFL monopoly sits at 25%. American leagues have massive revenue and have a monopoly in NFL, and even in the other sports they are effectively monopolies basketball,baseball, ice hockey yet sit around 50% of revenue. The EPL is around 70%. The other end of the scale would be the Middle East football leagues. The Saudi league has massive wages with Ronaldo earning more than entire teams in the USA and more than the whole IPL. Still the Saudi league gets big crowds compared to the UAE and Qatar. Qatar league the local population sits on the couch watching other leagues, they have well paid players budgets would 20-50m per team and probably next to nothing in wages.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Yes Ben, but in those sports the players probably spend 10 or more months living in their teams home town, thereby allowing the locals to claim that the environs influence the players. But in the BBL the whole season is what? 4-5 weeks? That makes it difficult to identify with such obvious FIFOing and is not comparable to "professional sport" imo.
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
Hi PeteB. I think that’s a part of what I don’t care about it. Don’t follow IPL, no team for me. If the t20 was a world league I’d might get into it. Maybe that’s were this is all heading, IPL owning most the leagues, most money, own’s most all the players.
Micko
Roar Rookie
The key difference between the two Ben is that professional sport in a lot of places has had the long history of genuine locals & tribalism to get to this point of not being relevant in the current year due to the sheer ferocity of the brand tribalism built up over a century or more from these genuine local roots. Liverpool FC, Man Utd FC, Barcelona FC, South Sydney FC, Collingwood FC, Essendon FC etc etc etc have that strong present brand created from a solid core of their vast histories of local tribalism. The BBL is a top-down product: created for the sake of existing for making money, like US based pro leagues like NFL, NBA etc. It will never have that same tribalism and passion attached to it.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
There is some circumstantial evidence of there being more than three sports currently.
CPM
Roar Rookie
Yes about 17.5% so 80% is into football with 3% into American football.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Maybe, but I tend to think the Saudi’s just like to splash the cash where others can’t. I actually think it’s less sinister than sports washing, in large part because I don’t think they care what the west thinks of them.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
There’s no doubt that’s what they WANT the money to do, though.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
I have checked my diary and as far as I can tell, I have never sold weapons to the Saudis. May I please criticise them now?
Ben Pobjie
Expert
18% of the world’s population is Indian.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Actually it will be the 3rd IPL .Second one already now into season 2 in South Africa ..Other forms of cricket just swept aside ..Test team reducing fixtures..Still no coach appointed for the past 12 months ...Domestic 3 day cricket unable to even secure a sponsor ..Yet the numbers involved in T20 and teams with distinctive IPL names are just staggering ..There really is only one show in town ..
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
You’d think so but if your first and primary love is power/money it can trump all
CPM
Roar Rookie
Well said. And who is selling the sportwashing, non-democratic, human right violating Saudi regime the latest and greatest weapons for profit? The same people who are complaining about sportwashing. It’s like that politician saying “here is the latest electric whip which increases the crackling sound for each strike … now remember don’t be flogging the women. Bye now until next time” There is nothing morally wrong for the Saudi’s to be investing billions into the IPL, nothing at all.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I'll admit that whilst I've been of the view for 3 or 4 years about the impending restructuring of how cricket is engaged/played at the international level across the broader nations membership base (national vs domestic, FC vs very short white ball), I'm a bit stunned at how rapidly this is coming to fruition.
CPM
Roar Rookie
80-85% of the worlds population is only interested in Football, the beautiful game. They don’t care about cricket only India cares about cricket and they can survive without test cricket or ODI cricket quite comfortably.
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
Test cricket could become amateur. Again.
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
BA, doesn't say how, just says how many