The plans for a new Grand-Slam style circuit of T20 tournaments, with the financial support of Saudi Arabia, based on a plan elaborated by players associations, represents a bold attempt of a Crick incursion in cricket for forces outside the closed store that is the traditional governance of Crick.
But despite all the flutter that has created the revelation of the plan, it remains to be seen how far it will go if it does not co -opt, or at least interest, the organization that has the key to the largest market of Crick: the BCCI.
It is time, some will argue, given their impact on other important sports. It has always been a football nation, a great Asian force, but they are its incursions into boxing, tennis, F1, MMA and golf that have indicated its broader intentions of becoming a sports force.
At the moment, there is little detail in these plans. From seven to eight teams around the world, playing four tournaments in one year, each expected tournament lasts 10-12 days. These are early sketches with few details on how such tournaments will fit into what is already a calendar that explodes in the seams. To be incorporated successfully, it would surely need to cause collateral damage, more likely to some international Crick formats, such as bilateral hate without context and T20i. What countries will be involved? And what teams will they send? National sides, as it seems to be a suggestion, or those of the T20 franchise leagues already established (and then, is this a Renaissance of the Champions League?), Or any other elite geographical representation?
This is not unimportant. The players are at the most acute end of the impossibility of this calendar and have expressed the need for the need for change. Given the associations of players involved, some of the world’s main players will be behind this. But this will not be exactly as the ATP, because the plans also foresees a participation for the CPI. According to some stories, Danny Towsend, executive director of SRJ, is believed to interact with Jay Shah out of the IPL auction and mentioned, although briefly, these plans. I would suggest that Saudi Arabia does not want to make the type of turbulent and disruptive input in the cricket that you have in golf, for example, where you have created a parallel circuit completely.
The talk has so far been that the circuit income will be divided into some formulation between SRJ, players associations and the ICC. The Aca statement recognizes that the profits will find a path back to the governing bodies, hoping that Test Crick can be subsidized.
And, of course, the reality is that, for that to happen, the circuit will need Indian players. That is why Shah was sought at the IPL auction, since he was BCCI secretary at that time, as well as in the elected president of the ICC. Few things of this magnitude can happen successfully at Crickt without Shah, or BCCI, buying it. And why the BCCI would buy a concept that, in its most complete ambitions, actually rivals the IPL?
The first noises of another important joint have been of extreme skepticism. The executive director of the ECB, Richard Gould, has told him to Age Unsequently “there is no scope or demand for such an idea,” emboldened, without a doubt, for the injection of a private capital reward of half billion pounds in the hundred. Other joints could influence the perspective of another income flow, but the conclusion is that, if the BCCI is not aboard the plan, a large transmission agreement becomes much more difficult.
A last point to reflect is the idea that WCA and ICC work together. The WCA has become increasingly frustrated with the way the game is being directed by the CPI and its members. When he launched his review in the structure, President Heath Mills said he had “given hope” that the leaders of the game could establish a “clear and coherent structure” that houses both the international cricket and the national leagues.
It is almost inevitable that the money from Saudi Arabia between the game. It has broken in most other important sports and since attracting Indian tourism remains a key objective, Crick is obvious. He is not sure if this is so.
Osman Samiuddin is a senior editor in Espncricinfo
