Posts
Loading ...This might have to be the way to go, many people have said that ‘the face of English Cricket is changing’, but I’d rather it changed in the shape of an EPL, rather than all of our players leaving for the IPL. Having said that, the county game has always has it’s critics, so maybe this is the shake up it needs.
English Premier League gathers momentum
By Will 3 months ago Leave a comment on this post
The news that Allen Stanford, the Wild West’s Lalit Modi, is to meet the ECB next week offers a delicious opportunity to ponder what the England board has up its sleeve. And still the ECB continue to maintain, with absolutely no conviction, that they “don’t want a knee-jerk reaction to the IPL”. That is exactly what they want, and arguably need. There’s a sense the ECB are spitting nails that another country - god forbid India! - have stolen their Twenty20 and created a monster from it. They want that monster, their beast, back.
So they’re pondering the English Premier League (EPL), a smaller sibling India’s giant tournament, to take advantage of England’s season to attract international stars. It’ll probably take place in June and July next year as no other country has any international commitments to conflict. And with Stanford potentially coming on board - it’s absolutely unclear what, if any, the Texan’s role might be - the prospect of millions of dollars come into the equation.
Stanford’s 20/20, the Caribbean tournament which he piled millions of his own money into, has been a runaway success with cricket at its core. There are even some who wish Stanford would take charge of ICC’s World Cup every four years; he does things loud, in a very American way, but rather like Mr Getty has a fondness for cricket and wants to keep the sport’s traditions at the centre. Also like Getty and Modi, he knows a good deal when he spots one.
In the IPL, team names have been singularly uninspiring. The Mumbai Indians, the Deccan Chargers, the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Boring. What do you make of England’s plans, and what teams might be created?
Tags: allen stanford, ECB, england, english premier league, epl, indian premier league, IPL, lalit modi |
10 Responses to “English Premier League gathers momentum”
April 14th, 2008 at 8.25 pm
April 14th, 2008 at 11.03 pm
I’m sure that no matter what an EPL cricket may be like, you can come up with far better team names. Get the Barmies on to it.
April 15th, 2008 at 6.05 am
You could split the country into regions called ‘counties’ and they could play in a cup format. You could call it ‘The Twenty20 Cup’.
April 15th, 2008 at 6.29 am
Knight riders I like.Superkings has to do with the local chennai crowd’s infatuation with the word ’super’.If there can be New york Yanks,why not the mumbai indians.Considering the recent controversy in mumbai where north indians are supposed to be non-contributors and that mumbai is only for the local population and all that hogwash, its a good unifying name.Rajasthan was an empire and royalty prevailed for quite a long period there.
There empire grew in various place mostly hilly areas in the north.Dhoni has these roots in him too.Royal challengers is plainly “Vijay Mallya”.He does what he wants,who can stop him.We all love him anyway.The other names are dumb though.Being from chandigarh i’d have preferred somthn else to Kings 11 Punjab.
April 15th, 2008 at 6.40 am
But if they’re the Royal Challengers, doesn’t that mean that they come in second at best? Not the best advertisement for the team, is it?
I don’t know wha this’ll be like. Stanford’s series in the Carribean is a helluva lot more worthwhile than the IPL or ICL, but what can they do to the existing English tournamentthat hasn’t already been done? Yes, they might get in some overseas players, but they have those anyway, and if they have a franchise system where players are traded, that will surely only apply to the T20 and not the County or Pro40, won’t it?
At least the EPL if it happens is already in the middle of the English domestic season where a natural window already exists, so there isn’t the risk of some kind of schism.
April 16th, 2008 at 4.07 am
Royal Challenge is a brand of beer from United Breweries owned by Vijay Mallya who also happens to own Blore Royal challengers. Hope that clears it:-)
April 17th, 2008 at 4.43 am
Royal challengers is vijay mallya’s way of promoting ‘royal challenge’,which is 1 of his brands of whisky.
“Stanford’s series in the Carribean is a helluva lot more worthwhile than the IPL or ICL”
In what way??Please explain your statement.From what i’ve seen, they use orange balls and black bats and pink stumps,watever.Local indian cricketers,especially batsman are leagues above in quality.
April 17th, 2008 at 7.54 am
Because the Stanford series has rejuvinated the game in the West Indies, and the teams are based on actual nations, not just some arbitrary franchises based upon who buys what. Plus the teams themselves are all-local, meaning that the younger cricketers are bound to get more in the way of development and exposure than young cricketers in India, who’ll effectively have to play around a gang of overseas mercenaries. The Stanford T20 is a way of bringing cricket back to life in the Carribean, the way it should be- the IPL is juat a knee-jerk reaction from a petty board who can’t stand to have their control challenged by the ICL, and so decided to crush them. So that is why I think the Stanford series is a more worthwhile excercise than the IPL.
April 17th, 2008 at 1.12 pm
I watched the entire standford T20 tourney this year and I must admit it was absolutely boring.. the quality of cricket was poor to say the least.. the games were terribly one sided especially between any of those tiny islands like virgin island and big 4 islands like jamaica, trinidad etc. While its good for West Indian crickets development I do not think it has any global appeal and that’s the essential difference between IPL and Stanford. IPL with its global stars and global television coverage will be a huge success without doubt and the quality of cricket will be absolutely 100 times better than Stanford or even ICL.
Anyone who has seen Stanford T20 will agree with me. England created T20 to attract larger audience but they never had business accumen to make it big financial success like the bright headed Indians do nor do they have the financial giants backing cricket like they do in Football.. I wish them all the luck and hope that Abrahamovich buys London gorillas or manchaster monkeys..All the best to the ECB and the texan!!
April 18th, 2008 at 10.48 am
Despite the apparent appetite for an ‘EPL’, I wonder if it will get off the ground. The counties would want the players performing for the teams in their current guise; they just wouldn’t permit such an overhaul.
Overseas Superstars playing for the Essex Eagles, Kent Spitfires etc. maybe, but not for 10 new franchises.
Comments
« Strap in: here comes the circus | Main | County cockroach here to stay »
