Comments on: The lure of money

By: WoodyWay

WoodyWay — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:25:00 +0000

I hope you are right Marcus,but greed and disregard for others are powerful and addictive drugs.
Anyone for a nice Sunday afternoon game?Win or lose.
It’s too late.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:52:16 +0000

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.

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:31:23 +0000

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.

By: Angus

Angus — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:34:31 +0000

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.