It has been 5 years since the ECB introduced Twenty20 to the English game for monetary reasons and to raise the profile of cricket. Outside of the game’s core fans, the traditional image of cricket is seen as eccentric, overlong and boring. Thus by shortening the duration of the game to suit the shorter attention span of a public, increasingly used to near instant access to goods and services, it was made more accessible to those unfamiliar with it. A game could be watched with a result in a few hours at the weekend or after work. English cricketing counties who had grown used to playing mostly in front of empty seats with the occasional geriatric occupant, suddenly had crowds to deal with, what a novel concept! Twenty20 games gave County cricket some form of guaranteed income at a time when the future monetary security of such institutions was looking generally shaky. A similar situation can be seen with Allen Stanford’s 20/20 tournament in the West Indies.
So what of the Indian Premier League? To my mind, it has more parallels with the top level of English football than it does with English Twenty20 cricket; analogous to football in England, cricket is the number one sport in India. Sponsors fight hand over fist to be involved with Premiership teams and for the top teams these are international brands and should the the IPL continue in it’s current vein, the successful teams will attract similar sponsorship. In India each team already has rich owners who one hopes is supporting the venture for the love of the game rather than purely for financial gain.
This is where the Premiership has strayed. For example, why would an American with no interest in football want to buy a football team? The concern of the genuine fan who pays through the turnstile (and the nose) to support their team is low down on the list of priorities. Big money is there to be made in both international and domestic markets, through TV rights, shirt sales and the like. The Premiership has become an unsustainable cash cow making the rich, richer still. Why aren’t Premiership games shown on terrestrial television, where the most people can watch it? Money. Why change the home and away kits every single season? Money. Why would Premiership bosses suggest playing a 39th league game somewhere apart from England? Cold Hard Cash is the answer to all these questions and cricket authorities, especially those running the IPL needs to watch and learn from football’s mistakes to ensure it does not take cricket fans for granted.
Don’t get wrong, I enjoy the game in all it’s forms, but unless world cricket is managed properly we could see the devaluation of top level international cricket which would be a grave tragedy. I’m not saying the way it’s managed at the moment is perfect, just look at the recent England vs New Zealand fixture overload, but while the game is in a relative state of flux, organisers need to be led by more than just the need to fill their bank accounts.
Domestic cricket in India has the head start over English Counties as the popularity for the game amongst the general populous is already there, so there should be little issue over the underlying financial security of domestic Indian cricket. Where 20 over cricket has become the financial lifeblood of English County Cricket and in other countries, it should not be milked to the point of exhaustion. The long term support of the fans is a greater commodity than the short term contents of their wallets.
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