Cricket Boards’ Unison to Venture into the Unknown

Only a week ago cricket’s new baby, ultra-limited over cricket, as referred by Sunil Gavaskar in a television program during an innings break, was unveiled with the launch of ICC World Twenty20. But now with hardly a week in this new game of excitement, the format is all set to produce an ultra wave as the cricket boards’ of India, Australia, England and South Africa has joined hands to launch the Champions Twenty20 League last week. Possibly, this may be a sign of things to come ahead and promises to induce a sea change in world cricket.

For a sport that was so far been dominated by international bilateral ties this is an exemplar of taking the so far neglected domestic level of the game to the public. Many would think that the launch is a counter attack by BCCI over the Essel Group’s ICL but considering that the initiative was taken by cricket boards of four nations and with the presence of super stars like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Glenn McGrath and Stephen Fleming during its glittering launch a few days ago, this clearly is a serious business. Serious enough to make ICC President Ray Mali to take a flight to India, just a few hours after the start of World Twenty20 extravaganza in his homeland.

The first of the Champions Twenty20 will start next season in 2008 comprising of eight teams which will include the finalists of the domestic Twenty20 competition of these four nations. The domestic T20 has more significance in other countries unlike India where the inaugural competition this year went almost unnoticed.

To counter this, BCCI has announced their next move, that is, to launch Indian Premier League (IPL) to be held next April, lasting for 44 days with 59 matches. In contrast to this year, domestic T20 next year is expected to rule the domestic season.

The BCCI has taken a cue out of Football’s English Premier League of franchising teams, a significant step that will change the dynamics of the game. The teams can be bought by a corporate, can be owned and managed by themselves including the selection of players. Now this is a unique concept in cricket where so far the players were associated to only one broad can now be bought for a competitive price to play for their team.

So how much will Tendulkar cost? Then what about Shane Warne? The Indian is the richest cricketer in the world. Will he be the most expensive? Which teams will these guys sign contract with and for what price?

All this will create a public interest ultimately making them to follow domestic cricket. Now this looks a nice way to keep the people pinned to the game but to what extent will this be successful? This is something that we have to wait and watch.

We all know BCCI is a king maker when it comes to marketing telecast rights and the in-stadia rights but what about pulling crowed to watch matches in grounds? The Indian board has done its best to schedule all these matches in the evenings hoping to have a capacity crowd.

Financially this format is more rewarding for the administrators, is so for the cricketers. The total cash prize involved in Champions Twenty20 is $5 million, including $2 million for the winners, the highest for any domestic competition. Now this is clearly a big motivation for the players, specially the fringe ones.

What will this do is it will make the domestic competition more competitive and enthralling to watch. This initiative will also boost interstate cricket.

All this is fine. We all know that no competition can be a success without star presence. The international fixtures are jam packed for team India that they play almost the whole year. This not only yanks the cricketers but also the spectators. It takes too much of time and energy for a person to keep track of everything that’s happening in world cricket. Having taken all the initiative to take the game to a new level the ICC and the BCCI has to find out ways to cut short some of the international schedule of the Indian cricket team enabling the players to take part in such domestic tournaments.

In the proposed league, the gains are substantial in financial terms but how much will it cost the game itself?

What will be the state of the traditional test match cricket that we all love this game for? Will such a raze take away the shine of the game? Are these proposals the signs of end of an era and beginning of a new one? Rather passing the judgment now let’s welcome cricket’s baby and enjoy its beauty as we did for the last one week.