USA and UAE major destinations likely for T20 cricket.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: A phenomenon called cricket fatigue – which hits folks right after the World Cup every four years after watching the crème de la crème of the sport for an intensive month after which other cricketing action on its heels seems mediocre and like cold soup – may likely swamp the global cricketing fraternity, fans and players alike as a deluge of Twenty20 cricket is on its way this year.
If reports are to be believed, there is frenzied action going on behind the scenes worldwide as young and old iconic players are being wooed to play in different T20 tournaments, from the United States to the United Arab Emirates.
The most exciting news, or for some to be greeted with a smirk and a shake of the head as to the utter futility of it all, is news that Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar are gearing up to battle it out once more in the middle, along with other international players who wooed the fans not too long ago, in a tournament for the ‘oldies’.
Make that former top notch international players, to be diplomatically correct.
The list of players in that reported tournament may include the likes of Brett Lee, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Mathew Hayden, Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis.
Star Sports reported that Warne and Tendulkar, who are spearheading the effort, have offered 28 big-name ex-players contracts worth around $30,000 a match to play in their tournament, the Cricket All Stars League (CASL).
The Australian reported the two stars have made personal approaches to the group asking them to sign an initial contract that offers $US25,000 ($31,000 Australian currency) a match for 15 games planned across 42 months. The first three matches are planned for September in the US, in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Interestingly, more than two million people watched the last T20 World Cup in the US and ESPN sold live TV coverage at $100 to pay-per-view subscribers. It remains to be seen how many people would travel to watch the golden oldies knock around a few balls or bend their shoulders for a bouncer or two. Not many are likely to splurge on pay-per-view like on the Mayweather fight.
One thing is for sure: nobody wants to see Tendulkar struggling to clock a spinner over the ropes or be comprehensibly beaten time and again like Sanath Jayasuriya in the Hong Kong Sixes tournament, after he came out of retirement.
Cricket Australia and the International Cricket Council (ICC) have no knowledge of the plans for this tournament, but Lee’s manager Neil Maxwell confirmed his client had received an offer and would be seeking permission to play, said the Star Sports report. It also noted that if CASL comes to fruition, it could affect some domestic T20 competitions such as the Big Bash and Indian Premier League.
Another unnamed T20 tournament is being planned by the Essel Group, owned by millionaire media mogul Subhash Chandra, reported the Press Trust of India.
Chandra has been reported as saying he wants to start a new global T20 tournament similar to Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Taking the rebellion to greater heights, Chandra, who was behind the now-defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL), also reportedly wants to create a breakaway world governing body for the sport.
There were also reports that Australian stars Michael Clarke and David Warner were offered $50 million contracts each to play in the rebel tournament.
Also in the works, is another annual T20 tournament in the United Arab Emirates in February 2016, backed by a large Middle Eastern hotel chain. Players are reportedly being offered a $100,000 sign-on fee to join that tournament. Who the players are, who will compete in this version – if any are left with any international record to their name and time to play it with all the T20 tournaments being played, including in Bangladesh and the West Indies – is another question altogether.
The Weekend Australian reported this UAE tournament will be structured like the IPL, with auctions of the franchises and players.
Joining this cricket medley is a new T20 tournament planned by the Indian cricket board BCCI, this September, in the UAE. This tournament, being dubbed as a mini IPL, will replace the existing Champions League T20, reported The Indian Express.
The new venture will feature the top four IPL teams that have made the playoffs this year, and will be played in a league format leading to a knockout phase.
BCCI’s new secretary Anurag Thakur has informed Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa — India, Australia and South Africa are joint owners of CLT20 — that they will be scrapping CLT20 from this season.
“It (CLT20) was not serving any purpose, people weren’t attracted to it. We are looking at all possibilities of a substitute tournament to replace CLT20 and the initial idea is to have an IPL-2 so that Indian crowds could relate more to it,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by the Express.
Since its inception in 2009, Champions League T20 has not managed to acquire title sponsors, and television ratings have dipped progressively. It’s expensive to run too – the CLT20 had a total prize money of $6 million, compared to the $6.3 million kitty for IPL. The CLT20 winner earned more than the IPL winner – $2.5 million as opposed to $2.3 million.
But as the Australian noted, all these plans for T20 tournaments, for young and old players alike, for new and re-creating existing tournaments, would need the approval of the ICC.
“The International Cricket Council denies any knowledge of the all-stars tournament and has strict rules about “disapproved cricket”, which can lead to 12-month bans for players, sponsors, broadcasters and anyone else involved in games that are not sanctioned by the official bodies,” the report noted.
One can only wonder if the overwhelming cricket fatigue will not just erode the revenues of other similar bang-bang cricket but deteriorate the merits and nuances of the long form of cricket, the 50 overs one-day version and the venerable Test matches. They could become extinct soon. Or perhaps the World Cup every four years might be the only time teams play 50 overs cricket.
In tennis, it’s common enough for former players to come out of retirement and play in the seniors version. Even now, John McEnroe taking on Ivan Lendl is a welcome sight and much relished. It might not be the case if Tendulkar is found wanting against Lee or Warne. There are enough younger players promoting the game. Let the legends and gods be legends and gods.
(Sujeet Rajan is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Bazaar)