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A fan’s-eye view of the EPL
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-July, 3 Comments »
On hearing a new initiative, my first instinct has generally been the most reliable one. “A shorter World Cup? Great!” “$10 million, winner-takes-all? What is this, a game show?” But I’m less certain about the contented feeling I got in the pit of my stomach immediately after reading about the impending EPL. On reflection, I wonder where it’s going to leave the casual fan.
Twenty20 cricket is the most expensive form of domestic cricket to watch, and with huge pressure on the ECB to match or even surpass the level of revenue generated by the IPL, it’s easy to envisage a future in which tickets to a Twenty20 game hit the £30 or even £40 mark. And it’s wishful thinking to expect a terrestrial broadcaster to show interest, especially when you consider the sheer number of games involved and the prime Friday-night slot most of them would fill.
What the EPL vision reminds me of most is not its Indian counterpart, but its footballing equivalent: the bloated, joyless Premiership. A middle-class preserve, a place where corporate fools will go to show how ‘down with it’ they are, the domain of Sky or Setanta subscribers alone. We will be told, patronisingly, that this is the price you pay for higher standards.
So a few suggestions, just in case Giles Clarke reads this blog:
1) Include free admission to a Championship game with every Twenty20 ticket. Championship cricket will all but disappear from summer weekends, and it needs all the help it can get.
2) Ticket prices will need some form of regulation. The ‘Iron Law’ of cricket spectating goes something like this: the less you’ve paid to watch a game, the more fun you’ll have. World Twenty20 in South Africa: fun. World Cup in the Caribbean: not fun. 50 rupees to watch the world’s best in the IPL: very fun. £60 to watch Neil Mackenzie trickle along at two an over: really, not fun at all.
3) If you want to sell the rights to the SuperMegaEnglishTwenty20FlyingCircus to Sky for such an astronomically high sum that anyone wanting to watch it will need to buy a new dish, we won’t kick up a fuss. As long as we can have Test matches back on terrestrial.
4) Oh, and thanks for ditching the Pro40.
3 Comments »English Premier League in 2010
By Will 2 years ago, mid-July, 2 Comments »
I’ve been off a couple of days and there’s masses to catch up on at this late hour, not least the ECB’s domestic restructuring and unveiling of the English Premier League. Briefly, this is the deal:
In a unanimous decision, the format that has been agreed upon will involve all 18 first-class counties, plus two overseas sides to make up the numbers, with the matches to be played in the month of June. One of the teams will be provided by Allen Stanford and it is believed the other will be from India, with the winners of the IPL the likely choice.
A separate Twenty20 League for the 18 counties will then take place, primarily on Friday nights in July and August, and will act as the qualifier for the Champions League. The current Pro40 competition will be scrapped to make way for the competition.
Thankfully, the new Twenty20 league has killed off the Pro40 – a tournament hilariously out of date, and purely a money-spinner for the counties. This new money spinner, however, should inject upwards of £60m into the game every year.
It’s all a bit…limp, isn’t it? Keith Bradshaw, MCC’s chief executive, recently offered his ideas which wouldn’t have included all the counties. The ECB’s includes all 18, plus two more, and in doing so renders it far from “premier”. It’s bloated before it’s even begun.
My main concern is overkill; you can have too much of a good thing, as my hangover this morning reminded me. Will England be hungover from Twenty20 come 2011? From June onwards, the country will be overtaken by it; after the EPL comes the usual Twenty20 Cup, and you have to wonder how much energy everyone’s going to have with dozens and scores of these matches taking place. Moreover, how are we, the public, going to react to it?
And has the ECB squandered an opportunity to finally cut down the number of teams? 18 is still too many. 20 is bloody ridiculous.
Secondly, if ECB offer the television rights to Sky (which are up for renewal end of 2009), this bold new tournament won’t seep into the public’s summery minds nearly as much were it on free-to-air. We can only hope that with the additional income these tournaments are bringing, the ECB won’t have to rely on Murdoch’s millions to ratchet up their coffers and thus cut off the majority of the population who don’t have (or can’t afford) Sky.
So are you in favour?
2 Comments »City, county, region
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of April, 8 Comments »
So Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, doesn’t believe a city-based franchise system would be workable in England’s attempt to challenge the Indian Premier League. In fact, Clarke said that “franchise sport has simply never worked in the UK”, which comes hot on the heels of county chief executives voicing their own concerns over the latest Twenty20 developments.
Clarke was speaking at the ECB’s AGM, but some of what he says concerns me. He was full of praise for India’s tournament, but insisted “much of the look and feel of the tournament was taken from the ECB template”. Valid sentiments, but it only makes the ECB look even more daft, short-sighted and bitter that they didn’t think of it first. There is still no clear idea of what the English Premier League will amount to, and the relevant parties – ECB, Professional Cricketers’ Association and the counties themselves – all appear to be at loggerheads with one another. Meanwhile, Allen Stanford is waiting in the wings, licking his lips at what he believes could be a huge earner. But how? And when?
We can forget 18 counties being involved. That much we know. And I’m not in favour of city-based franchises either as this will inevitably lead to some cities and towns being left out, or merged with a neighbour. For example, thinking purely geographically, Gloucestershire and Glamorgan would presumably be combined…but as what? Bristol or Cardiff? Exclude one and you’re effectively ruling out 50% of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Regionalisation seems a fair and simple solution:
North Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham
London Surrey, Middlesex, Essex
South Hampshire, Kent, Sussex
Wales and West Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Somerset
West Midlands Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Northants
East Midlands Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire
Fascinating to think of the teams these would put on the park, too, and who would captain them. Your thoughts?
8 Comments »English Premier League gathers momentum
By Will 2 years ago, mid-April, 10 Comments »
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?
10 Comments »