da prosport bet： The PCA’s chief executive on how England can take advantage of the Twenty20 boom

da wazamba： Sean Morris04-May-2008
Cashing in: Dimitri Mascarenhas gets into IPL’s swing © Getty Images
Since accepting the position of chiefexecutive of the PCA (Professional Cricketers’ Association) in December I have seenthe cricket landscape change more in threemonths than it probably has in the previous 30years. The question that was immediately onmy lips was: can we have increased wealth withoutharming the health of our game?Dressing rooms around the counties are fullof professional cricketers looking forward toanother season, but in every one of them areplayers casting their eyes further afield to theriches of Indian Twenty20 cricket. And who canblame them?In any profession the opportunity to maximiseearning potential is a natural right of theemployee. We have seen sports stars, particularlyin the United States and more recently inEuropean football, behave as “free agents”. This hasrarely applied to cricketers, for whom club loyalty isperhaps stronger, and the most recent rules fromthe ECB ensure that restrictions apply if a playerdecides to play for the Indian Cricket League.The huge investment in Indian Twenty20cricket provides potential benefits for ourplayers. Undoubtedly both their leagues havesignificantly increased the market value of theplayer and for the first time since the 1970s theyprovide alternative employment opportunities forthe leading stars.Importantly, the rapid emergence of theIndian Premier League has challenged the game’sadministrators. This is a good thing. It forces usall to make improvements to our own productsand services that we deliver for the cricketer andfor the game’s followers. All the players I havemet on our pre-season rounds are in favourof the increased investment in the game andthe personal benefits it brings. But before theplayers rush off to India, we must look at thepotential impacts these actions could have onthe health of our domestic game.Some would say the Indian approach tosetting up these leagues has been predatory. Thecountry’s financial control of the international game has just been given a further cashinjection that benefits the Indian board and itsICC-sanctioned IPL. If it was predatory before,how would the Indian board behave if it wantedto pick off England’s leading players?Our domestic game relies on the substantialrevenues of the broadcasting deal. Shouldevents in India threaten this, then our gamehas serious problems that would affect allprofessional cricketers and the investment ingrass-roots programmes. Losing top playersto India would lower the value of any futurebroadcasting agreement.Twenty20 has been a big financialsuccess in England and Wales. It has attracted a new, younger audience to the game,growing our supporter base. If India can createa global Twenty20 extravaganza that increasesthe number of followers, then congratulations to them.But let us take advantage at the same time. Theopportunity lies much closer home thanMumbai and New Delhi – in north London.In May 2007 the PCA released a documentcalled andmany of the recommendations have been adoptedin four-day cricket for 2008. That documentalso contained some interesting ideas for theimprovement of our own Twenty20 competition.These included rescheduling of the tournamentto fit within school holidays, and a mini-breakwithin the season to accommodate the event.Perhaps we should go further, developour own domestic tournament as the world’spremier Twenty20 club event with the finestinternational players participating for our ownclubs and invite the domestic champions fromthe other Test-playing nations to participate in aChampions League-style Twenty20 festival. England (and Wales) has one unique advantage in that it is the only Test-playing nation thatplays from April to September, so our summerdoes not conflict with the others’. This meansthe vast majority of international players fromother countries are potentially available duringour season. If we could use this advantagealongside and create the leading domesticTwenty20 tournament in the world, then we havea commercial opportunity that would enable usto take advantage of the huge appetite for cricketin Asia.In short, this could reduce the threat of losingour top players to India during our season; wecould attract the finest international players toour shores; and we could significantly enhancethe appeal of our broadcasting rights on offer.