So this week the Daily Mail reported that Major League Cricket is hoping to lure English players away from our domestic season. They kick off in Dallas this July with five of the six teams funded by the IPL.
The ECB’s response, it is reported, will be to increase match fees for English players.
But racing the big bucks of the IPL only ends one way and that is with the ECB broke and Indian dominance of world domestic and international cricket only more strongly imbalanced. Of course the BCCI and IPL are different bodies and, yes, the MCC dominated cricket for decades before that so this isn’t an imperialist rant: just a sadness that imbalance is only ever damaging when protecting and nurturing a sport.
In many respects, Major League Cricket should be celebrated. We want a global sport, don’t we? Or do we only want the limited ‘chosen’ countries to play because it keeps our colonial position alive somehow?
Perhaps the threat is not more cricket, but that cricket becomes more about club than country. Of course, County fans have strong and justified opinions about their perspective on this but I have written before about how I am not one of them. I’m not from a First Class County and I just can’t keep up with the domestic game even if I wanted to.
But MLC, and IPL, and BBL, and PPL, and whatever that South African one that’s even shorter than The Hundred is are all about the franchise and not about anything else. I think we value Counties because they still have a semblance of identity that runs deeper than the big name signing of the year.
With The Hundred claiming the entirety of August in England this year, the ECB chose to chase the cash cow and hope against all logic and bank balances that we would be the most desirable place for world class players to play. But The Hundred could never compete with its international rivals on climate and lifestyle, let alone pay packets.
If the ECB wants to ride this storm I can only see two choices: they could hold firm against the big buck franchise tournament, which is blooming hard to do whilst watching others make money from it but just ignoring it with dignity could well be the best long-term strategy. Or, they give up trying to pay more for the best players to compete with their rivals and instead focus on developing a better pool of younger, exciting talent. This option could benefit England cricket in the long run but also set England apart as a destination for early-career cricketers. Set up the contracts so that players stay for at least one year after they ‘break out’ and hit the top 20 rankings or whatever and we could have the best value in town for watching exciting new players.
Ultimately, I just don’t see how we can compete with the IPL and the danger is that by trying, we lose everything. So let’s think again instead of throwing good money after bad.