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    Sourav Ganguly responding to Ramiz Raja's suggestion that he was like a school boy in the field during the Kolkata Knight Riders' stirring defence of a low total against the Delhi Daredevils

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    The lure of money

    By Will 2 months ago Leave a comment on this post

    Andrew Strauss:

    We return to England after six weeks of toil, and not much has changed. We have reversed a decline in Test cricket, but realise that sterner ones wait in the form of the touring South Africans later in the season. Also, all the talk is now returning to the IPL, and its influence on the game’s future. I can’t believe for one moment that there aren’t going to be changes to the game. Money talks too loudly, but exactly what they are and when they will come is for others to decide. For the England players, we have just had a timely reminder of what money can’t buy, playing and winning for your country.

    Dean Headley on the ECB’s attitude towards the IPL:

    “If the ECB ignore these opportunities for players, it could have catastrophic results in terms of losing a star player or several star players,” Headley told The Sunday Telegraph.

    “Even if we don’t see an exodus we might have a lot of disgruntled England players and that’s not healthy. Where would that leave our game? It might only take a few brave players to start the ball rolling. We need all parties concerned to come together and reach an agreement that keeps everyone happy.”

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    3 Responses to “The lure of money”

  • Angus wrote:
    March 31st, 2008 at 8.34 pm

    Perhaps the whole project will be an economic disaster, and the following season normality will be restored.

    We can only hope.

    I mentioned way back that in the future cricket might be a private spectacle played in front of a select group of Indian billionaires.

    I’ve got a feeling the IPL and ICL will be big in South Asia, but nowhere else in the world. I can’t think of too many people outside of India who are going to get excited about Mumbai playing Delhi. Mancheter United v Arsenal it ain’t.

    Andrew Strauss made an interesting point about the thrill of playing for your country. Remember back to the disastrous World XI games? The players and spectators didn’t give a toss, which made for a poor spectacle.

    Flash the money in front of players, and they are going to take it. Who wouldn’t? It could spell doom for West Indies, South African, and New Zealand cricket, let alone rising stars in the Associates or Zimbabwe. Money changes everything.

    But can you really see players being that bothered about getting out for nowt or leaking runs, given that the contracts are signed, they’ll get the money regardless, and they all lament the saturation of cricket today? It’s not as if there’s much at stake in these games? It’s just a nice annual bonus for the players and a headache for world cricket administrators.

  • Susan wrote:
    March 31st, 2008 at 10.31 pm

    West Indian and NZ players have not earnt much money from playing international cricket (I mean compared to the powerhouses Australia and India, not relative to household wages). The difference with the English players is that they are already earning what they deserve (some even say too much). For this reason I will be disappointed if any players in the current team go to the IPL. Fringe players are a different story.

  • Marcus wrote:
    April 1st, 2008 at 7.52 am

    Angus

    It would definitely put a little more pressure on the Windian, Saffer and Kiwi boards, but hopefully the new competition will force them to get their financial affairs in order, then offer more and better central contracts.

    And another thing, just in general. I refuse to view this as the end of Test cricket as we know it. Whenever there’s any significant change- not just for cricket, but everywhere- the doomsayers start saying that this is the end of all that we know and hold dear. But it never happens. People still attend movie theatres despite television. People still attend live theatre despite movies. Fans will still attend Test cricket despite T20. Tests have endured the Great Depression, two World Wars, terrorist attacks, Bodyline and the Packer circus. I’m confident that they will endure a T20 tournament that only lasts one month out of every year.

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