The plans for a new Grand-Slam style circuit of T20 tournaments, with the financial support of Saudi Arabia, based on a plan developed by players’ associations, represents a daring attempt to foray into cricket by forces outside the closed shop which is traditional cricket governance.
But for all the influx that the revelation of the plan has created, it remains to be seen how far it will go if it does not cooperate, or at least the interest, the organization which holds the key to the largest cricket market: the BCCI.
It is time for some to support, given its impact on other major sports. It is always a football nation – a major Asian force – but it is its incursions in boxing, tennis, F1, MMA and golf that reported its broader intentions to become a sporting force.
For the moment, there are few details to these plans. Seven to eight teams from all over the world, playing four tournaments in one year, each tournament was planning to last 10-12 days. These are early sketches with few details on how these tournaments will adapt to what is already a calendar that bursts to seams. To be successfully incorporated, he would almost certainly need to cause collateral damage, most likely to certain international cricket formats, such as bilateral ODIs without context and T20is. What countries will be involved? And what teams will they send? The national sides, as it seems to be a suggestion, or those of the T20 franchise leagues already established (and therefore, is it a renewal of the Champions League?), Or another geographic representation of an elite?
It is not unimportant. The players are at the strongest end of the impossibilities of this calendar and have expressed the change. Given the associations of players involved, some of the main players in the world will be behind it. But it will not be exactly like ATP, because the plans also consider participation for the ICC. According to some accounts, Danny Townsend, the director general of SRJ, would have interacted with Jay Shah on the sidelines of the IPL and mentioned auction, although briefly, these plans. This suggests that Saudi Arabia does not want to make the type of turbulent and disturbing entry into the cricket it has in golf, for example, where it created a parallel circuit.
Until now, the speech has been that the circuit income will be divided into a formulation between SRJ, players’ associations and the ICC. ACA’s declaration acknowledges that gains will find a way back to guiding bodies, in the hope that test cricket can be subsidized.
And, of course, the reality is that, for this to happen, the circuit will need Indian players. This is why Shah was sought at IPL auction, given that he was secretary of the BCCI at the time, as well as the elected president of the ICC. Few of this magnitude can happen successfully in cricket without shah – or BCCI – buy it. And why would the BCCI buy a concept which, in its greatest ambitions, actually competes on IPL?
The first noises of another great council were an extreme skepticism. The director general of the ECB, Richard Gould Age unequivocal “there is no significance or request for such an idea”, embraces, without a doubt, by the injection of a private equity private equity of half a million books in the hundred. Other member advice could be influenced by the prospect of another flow of income, but the main thing is that if the BCCI is not on board the plan, a large diffusion agreement becomes all the more difficult.
One last point to think is the idea of WCA and the ICC working together. The WCA has become more and more – and rightly so – frustrated by the way the game is managed by the ICC and its members. When he launched his examination in the structure, President Heath Mills said that he had “lost hope” that the leaders of the game could establish a “clear and coherent structure” sheltering both international cricket and national leagues.
It is almost inevitable that the Saudi money will enter the game. It has divided into most other important sports and since the attraction of Indian tourism remains a key goal, cricket is an obvious game. It is just far from being sure that it is so.
Osman Samuddin is editor -in -chief at Espncricinfo
