He was not with the South African A team, he was not part of the South African unit preparing for a full series in England, rather, he was playing for Mumbai Indians’ development XI. If you thought players were loyal to their franchise for the duration of the Indian Premier League, and then went back to live their regular lives where they came from, think again. On paper, there exists a window of two months, and now two and a half months for the IPL.
When the IPL plans to increase from its current 10 teams to 12, this window will have to be extended to three months. This meant that no other international cricket would be played in that period. While there was opposition to this – and recently the Pakistan Cricket Board took issue with the extension – there is also an understanding that literally no player in the world is going to choose anything over the IPL. The club versus country debate, of being loyal to the system that gave you the chance to grow, is now at length.
If anything, the IPL underestimates the size of the animal. India has been able to defend its international game for a number of reasons. First, the IPL is the leading Twenty20 league in the world, and the richest by any means. Secondly, playing for India still pays exceptionally well even if you cannot secure an IPL contract, although this situation is rare.
However, the most important thing is that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) does not allow its players to participate in any other league. This means that India’s players are accountable to the BCCI at all times except in the IPL, to which they are primarily contracted. When that changes, and there are indications that the BCCI is allowing non-contracted Indian players time to play in other leagues, the end of bilateral cricket will be closer than anticipated.
You can be sure that the six IPL franchises that have bought teams in South Africa’s latest T20 league will be lobbying the BCCI to allow some participation of Indian players. It may be too soon for India’s international or centrally contracted players, but there are many Indians in the IPL who have not been signed by the BCCI or state associations. Perhaps these players will be given time to venture abroad? When this happens, the power between the National Board and the suffrage will change decisively.
Effectively, a player can be signed by Mumbai Indians or Chennai Super Kings for several months in a year in different windows. While the South African T20 league may not necessarily be an attempt to hold a second IPL in the year – the beneficiaries are entirely different – it is a decisive movement towards the system of football. The time is not far off when the player will be primarily contracted with a company or organization that owns teams in several T20 leagues around the world, and will only be released to play for his country when it is part of the parent organization. would be favorable.
The most obvious sign of the innings was South Africa’s withdrawal from the three ODI series against Australia to be played in January 2023. This jeopardized South Africa’s direct qualification for next year’s 50-over World Cup, but the problem was that the dates clashed with their own T20I match. You might think that Cricket South Africa was greedy, but, in reality, it was more need based. Cricket South Africa has faced bankruptcy more than once in the last few years and this T20 league is probably their last attempt to secure the future of cricket in the country.
What kind of future it will hold, where the World Cup is no longer the first priority and a format is in danger of extinction, is another matter entirely. Cricket also thinks that some problems exist in other parts of the world. When West Indies players openly quit playing to become T20 franchise specialists for their team, they were initially referred to as mercenaries.
Today cricketers around the world are leaving one format or the other to do so. Quinton de Kock left Test cricket, will no longer play Ben Stokes How long before an Indian player takes a decision by dodging the BCCI? Then the flood gates open.
No comments:
Post a Comment