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The Indian dimension
By Emma 7 months ago, Comments
It has been somewhat of a double whammy for county cricket, and not one that could have been predicted by the end of last season. As Sussex were celebrating their second consecutive Championship victory in September, the only possible concern Chris Adams and co. could have had about their international berth would be which player to keep. Now, thanks to the incomprehensible forelock-tugging and deference that boards around the world are giving to a Test nation that only woke up to Twenty20 when they won the World Championship, having already let a private enterprise set up in the format they had snubbed, Mushtaq Ahmed may well have worn a Sharks shirt for the last time. But with only a month to go until the season starts, the nearest to clarity I’ve seen for clubs on the ICL is Andrew McGlashan’s list over at Cricinfo. The medley of pre-stance Kolpaks, post-stance Kolpaks, UK nationals, EU nationals and Internationals requiring NOCs has left a bit of a muddle.
So what does this spell? Well, at some point, there is going to be a lawsuit. Maybe more than one. I’m not going to pretend to know anything about the legal situation, but the PCA and their international equivalents will have been getting legal advice since the ECB’s statement last week. What will be most interesting will be who ends up suing who. Well, interesting for a law student. None of it is in the interest of English cricket.
As if a whole swath of maybe-banned-maybe-nots wasn’t enough, the sheer salaries and brevity of commitment being offered by the IPL are easily more of an attraction to top class internationals than six months drudgery in some of England’s colder climes. Shaun Pollock, for a while linked with Warwickshire, was only interested in playing the Twenty20s. Of the many Antipodean retirements of the last few months, how many are headed here? This of course is leaving aside the possibility that English players wont up sticks and move to Bangalore. When players with as little international exposure as car-park call up Luke Pomersbach are being offered $50,000 for a few games graft, surely some of the international fringe must be eyeing their bank balances with jealousy.
Considering the outcry over the last few seasons at the invasion of international players, the new position seems far more worrying. With a dearth of players available to fill the overseas slots, there will be a widening in the gap between the ‘rich’ counties and those without the cash to compete for what names are available. To think that some time last year Ricky Ponting was bemoaning the grind of international cricket, and voicing concerns that too much of the shortest format was being played. Ironically, the ICL should have had little impact on English cricket in terms of timing, while the IPL runs in direct conflict with parts of the season. It is impossible to know what the long-term impacts are going to be. In the meantime, coaches around the country will be filling in team sheets in pencil.
Comments“Do I have $1.5m for Mr Dhoni?”
By Will 8 months ago, Comments
The IPL cattle market is, for now, over and the players have been sold, branded and sent to their respective clubs. One of our chaps in India did a brilliant job of live blogging the whole thing (I think most media outlets stole/borrowed the details), and it was fascinating seeing which players went to which clubs and for what sum. Albie Morkel went for $675,000; Adam Gilchrist for $700,000. Chris Gayle cost $800,000 while Kolkata bid $950,000 for Ishant Sharma.
The hype of the IPL is almost overflowing at the moment, but I still can’t see the tournament lasting the long haul. Super-powered teams have been forced together in the past - World XIs and so on - without great success, so why will the IPL be any different? It’s a quick injection of easy money for the players and a bit of fun for us, but don’t expect it to last. He says, desperately hoping he is right…
What do you make of it all?
CommentsICC - wake up and smell the exhaustion
By Will 8 months ago, Comments
Cricket is in dangerous and unknown territory at the moment, what with all these players semi-retiring and playing in the Indian Premier League. The most worrying member of them all, I think, is the umpire Simon Taufel. He said today that he’s not sure if he’ll renew his contract when it expires on March 31, and no doubt will be offered a lucrative deal by the IPL. Why wouldn’t he accept it?
This guy is 37 years old. He has a young family, true, but is at the top of his profession and (you would think) handsomely rewarded by his paymasters, the ICC. But is he really? Umpires have an exhausting time of it, hopping from one hotel, one ground, one country to another, month after month. They are well paid for their jobs, but it says rather a lot that one of the youngest umpires on the international circuit is considering jacking it all in.
There is too much cricket being played, and neither the players or officials (hell - even the media have their limits, too…) can perform to their optimum. Maybe it’s a good thing, this IPL nonsense; maybe it’ll prompt the ICC into realising how they’re killing the game with the sheer quantity being played.
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