An ICC Working Group Might Be Formed As Cricket Grapples With Explosion Of Cashed-Up T20 Leagues

An International Cricket Council (ICC) working group might be formed as power brokers grapple with the mushrooming of T20 franchise leagues into the international calendar amid a potentially seismic shift for cricket.

The increasingly thorny issue was a major part of discussions at the ICC’s annual conference in Birmingham last week in the aftermath of new cash-rich T20 leagues announced in South Africa and the UAEUAE
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Those much anticipated leagues, launching in January concurrently with Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) undergoing revitalisation, are set to offer huge pay packets due largely to the Indian Premier League’s expanded footprint stoking fears its well-heeled private enterprises will cannibalise T20 franchise cricket.

The UAE league, dubbed the International League T20, was initially set to offer marquee players $300,000, as I reported in May, but with wealthy IPL owners on board, stars could be lured by pay cheques of $450,000, according to ESPNcricinfo.

The ODI retirement of England talisman Ben Stokes along with Australia star David Warner reportedly seriously contemplating joining the UAE league over the BBL has further spooked the sport, which appears spiralling head-on into an uncertain future with more T20 franchise leagues likely in the works.

“Cricket might start turning into football, where franchise leagues transcend the sport because of the money, ” said a source at the annual conference as discussions on a topic sweeping the cricket world intensified among decision makers in Birmingham.

“There are too many T20 leagues coming up, its eating into the FTP (Future Tours Programme) and causing rumblings over NOCs (Non Objection Certificate). It is genuinely a problem and is just going to fester.”

There were ideas thrashed around during the five-day conference, including some rather radical proposals which likely won’t gain traction but underline the left-field thinking taking shape from administrators amid a rapid transformation of the sport no one seems quite ready for.

One such idea was for leagues to start merging in a collaboration between boards to build something akin to super competitions, freeing up invaluable space in an increasingly congested cricket calendar.

“We can’t all have our own league, some aren’t even doing well,” an administrator at the conference told me. “Why can’t we look at combining leagues in a partnership model? Let’s say have a three-way agreement between boards, where countries host on rotation.

“It would free up windows in the calendar, ensure no overlapping and NOCs become easier. Something needs to be done because the space for international cricket is shrinking.”

While that proposal had perhaps predictably a muted response, some administrators believed governing bodies needed to make a stand on NOCs. “They shouldn’t be issued for players skipping their own leagues for others,” said a cricket chief as the Warner situation plays out in the background.

“Boards need to be more stern and precedents needs to be made otherwise it will be a free-for-all and the whole thing will just descend into chaos.

“There are more leagues that are going to arise, probably sooner rather than later. What will happen to international cricket? No one quite knows.”

There was no headway made over the issue during the conference emphasizing the need for a formal analysis with an ICC working group likely to be formed, according to sources, in a bid to provide some type of clarity of what lies ahead for cricket.

“Maybe this is the new world order, but there is apprehension around and a lot of questions over the primacy of international cricket and the sustainability of three formats amid such a squeeze on the calendar,” an administrator at the conference said.

“It’s creating a lot of tension and it’s just the beginning.”