T20 the “bane” of Cricket – especially West Indies

The ICC has agreed to limit the participation of foreign players in the T 20 Leagues around the World in a bid to curb the growing influence of the huge money leagues that are mushrooming everywhere in the world. The Indian Premier league was the first T 20 League that began in 2008 that gave rise to the Big Bash League, the T20 Blast, The Pakistan Super League and the Hundred – and now almost every country has its own T20 competition.

These T20 competitions demand a huge influx of foreign players and has led to many players quitting the central contracts of their countries and going full time free agents playing in the T20 Leagues around the world. The ICC has approved a cap of four Overseas players – active or retired – and seven local players. This ruling will not initially affect existing tournaments such as the UAE-based League (ILT20), the US ‘s major league cricket (MLC) and Canada yes Canada’s Global T20 – all of which allow more than four overseas players in the playing eleven. These leagues will have to confirm to this ruling in the near future. Additionally, the franchise will have to pay 10% release fee to the home board of each player it hires every season.

The recommendation to limit the number of players came from an ICC working group who were asked to come up with a recommendation to fight the player drain feared by some full members from the mushrooming of T20 Leagues, especially in non-Full member countries. When the ICC met earlier this week the decision did not come without hiccup as the proposal was initially voted down. However there was a resolve for some regulation that according to an official at the meeting

‘protects” the sport. The question arises, Why is there a need to protect the sport and from what? This writer’s opinion for some time is that the continuous draw away from Test cricket will at the end of the day cause the demise of cricket on the whole as is happening right in our backyard. The more West Indies cricket fall into ruin, the more cricket on the whole will fall into ruin including T20. Basically members agreed that cricket must avoid conditions that could lead to the kind of breakaway and eventual takeover of the sport that Golf underwent recently with prominent golfers defecting to a parallel circuit LIV Golf owned by a Saudi Arabian fund who offered unparalleled financial rewards.

The spread of IPL, I repeat the Indian Premier League franchise owners into other leagues worldwide is creating a major threat and is essentially forming a parallel calendar. Four of the six franchises in the MLC belong to IPL franchises. Several leading players globally – barring India yes barring India have signed up. India do not allow its players to play Franchise cricket except the IPL (They focus on their local Ranji Trophy.) Rahul Dravid was quoted as saying “I do not want our players to go the way of the West Indies “ (November 2022) - this after the debacle of the World t20 in 2022 where Mr. Hetmyer missed his plane twice and the world cup but was most present in the United Arab Emirates league earning a hefty USD$450 K for his efforts and playing a major role in his team winning the League.

The ICC working group was concerned that the lure has created serious scenarios faced by countries like New Zealand where Trent Boult turned down his national contract last August to become a free agent so he can focus on playing T20s. Jason Roy terminated his ECB incremental contract in May this year to play for Los Angeles Knight

Riders in the MLC. So the writing is on the wall. The TSUNAMI of cricket is real and we have to take action – drastic action. Recently the English and Wales CEO Richard Gould raised concerns over the fast growing numbers of franchise leagues. He said “the difficulty is that we have so many mouths to feed, whereas the franchise tournaments can take the cream off the top, they don’t get charged for the players” . He continued… “They (franchises) are very efficient models at getting money back into players’ pockets, but they are not funding the pathway. We need to fund the pathway. We will always do that. Having a really strong pathway is the secret to long-term success”. According to a report commissioned by the CWI (T20 Inquest report and basically swept under the “matting” ) it said West Indies may “cease to exist” unless the issue of its players prioritizing global T20 leagues ahead of International duties is resolved.

So while we flock to the Brian Lara cricket stadium in our masses for the T20’s and continue to ignore Test cricket, we will certainly be encompassed by the Tsunami of cricket … to be continued.