Throwing t' baby out with t' bathwater... - a million pieces...

Throwing t' baby out with t' bathwater...

Something that is in the Sports News a lot at the moment is how the ECB plan to respond to the IPL. There have been a number of ideas circulated about starting a new English Premier League with city-based franchises and all the other hype that seems to go with Twenty20 cricket.

My concern is that the Cricket World is risking ruining a centuries old sport (Remember Cricket as an organised sport pre-dates Football) for the sake of a quick buck. Twenty20 is exciting, yes, and the idea of having a game that lasts only thee hours is good for getting crowds. However, it's not proper cricket. It's a smash fest, it's uncouth, no one plays themself in, they just come out and flail the bat around for a while. It's fun to watch and play so we should have it, but they need to be careful that in throwing money at this new version of the game they don't critically undermine the Test and County game.

In the IPL you have already had a cricketer strike another. Forgive me for being clichéd but that's really just not cricket. This isn't football, it's supposed to be more civil. I think they should pass a rule now that if anyone ever strikes another player they're out of all cricket for a year. Strike an umpire you're out for life.

I am relieved to see that Giles Clarke, chief of the ECB is against the idea of City Franchises. That's not how British sports work, we have clubs with history and tradition and supporters who are reflective of all kinds of social and historic factors. The idea that you can just create 8-10 new franchises isn't going to work, nor is merging counties as often the counties next to each other have huge rivalries.

I think the only solution is to restructure the county game and simplify it. Have 4-day county cricket as it is, then have only one one-day tournament - make it a cup so all counties go into little mini groups then a straight knock out. For the Twenty20 we need to stick with the counties, yes make the teams from each county have some kind of distinct personality, but stick with the counties and spend the money promoting the league nationally and branding the teams, making a decent media package. Cricket would be more popular here if we could ever watch it, but unless you go to the games you can only see internationals - and those only if you have Sky Sports.

India can have their super-orgasmo-premiero-bollywood league or whatever it's called; it's entertaining but it's just not the right structure for Britain. The ECB need to get their heads together seriously over the coming weeks and decide on a strategy that mixes the traditions of British Sport with the entertainment value of IPL.

30.4.08 12:07

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To date 7 Comment(s) TrackBack-URL

huwie / Website (30.4.08 16:03)
Hmmm... I'm caught in two minds over this one.

I have to say, I love the IPL. I just love the way they do cricket in India, and I do think that the IPL is far more in keeping with the traditions of the game in India than it is in England. So in that sense, yes I agree - it works really well in India. They do it very well and I congratulate them on that.

However, I don't think it sits so well with the English tradition of the game, and so I think any attempt to set up an equivalent in the UK would be ill-advised. (And why do we have to have such a copy-cat mentality anyway? Cricket is a big game, played by big people, all over a bigger world.)

And I do agree, that if the longer versions of the game suffer as a result of the shorter, more media-friendly formats dominating, that would be a real tragedy.

I'm pretty sure the game is big enough in India to sustain short and long-formats of the game without much/any damage to either. I'm not sure if that's the case in the UK...

...but hey, what do I know, I'm just an armchair punter who still dreams of hitting a maiden century against the Aussies at Lords...

huwie / Website (30.4.08 16:09)
...although just had another thought...!

On the other side of the argument, I guess if they UK doesn't find an equivalent to the IPL, they may run the risk of losing all their top players the IPL...

...then again, I can't imagine them raising sponsorship to rival the fees of the IPL anyway, so maybe it would still be a waste of time...

...and so the argument continues...! I'm going to stop thinking about this, it hurts my head! :\

amillionpieces / Website (30.4.08 17:51)
I agree about the differences between India and here. Although it seems my adopted team aren't very good. They have a cool name tho. Banaglore Royal Challengers. Takes me back to the Raj

I think you're right about the risk of players going abroad, we do need something. I just don't think the same structure would work, I don't see why using counties wouldn't work - it is the only way to avoid carrying over existing area rivalries. (Like Newcastle and Sunderland - we'll both back Durham, but neither would ever back the other at anything)

On the money front, however, Texan Milllionaire Alan Stamford is talking about putting in $500m, or something like that. According to the BBC.

sppadic (30.4.08 18:15)
hmm IPL..where do i begin...its been a great hype n success financially...its been more entertainment...and even the slapping incident...what a farce...i like the fact that India is leading the way though i would wait to see how long this will last..the money being thrown at it is quite a lot ..and well atleast people are getting entertained....
As for the English adopting a similar structure..dont know..and to be honest at this point...i dont know how many people would turn up..the simple economics dictate that at this moment..the subcontinent will for a few years dominate revenues and thus hold economic muscle..(a refreshing change for once!) ...the names n cities concept is a bit odd but hey its a completely new concept even for us n am sure it will only get better..
I do hope the IPL keeps going well and can keep attracting the best players...ofcourse true cricket will always remain test match cricket...but there is definitely place for Twenty 20 ..how much and where all is the big agenda facing the ICC....(the internal politics of ICC being a close second :-))

amillionpieces / Website (30.4.08 19:22)
I agree about the subcontinent - I think that's down to more cricket fans too, as shown by how low key the world cup got when both India and Pakistan went out first round.

I wish I could watch the IPL games but windows media player won't play the stream (even when it's a paid for legal stream!) so I can't watch, but it does sound entertaining. I just worry about tests because I know that faced with making £20k for two months tour playing tests or £2m for six weeks of Twenty20 most people will choose the Twenty20!

What team are you backing? Tell me it's Bangalore!

sppadic (2.5.08 11:34)
hey there matey..hmm streaming issues..try one of the websites which use the sopcast p2p software...(decent quality..:-)) as for team ...chennai n bangalore n deccan in that order- blatantly because am south indian!:-)

amillionpieces / Website (5.5.08 14:29)
Hi Sppad! I use sopcast sometimes, but often I get 'channel offline' notices, which is a pain. I'm more than willing to pay it's just the paid for one won't work. Chennai are doing very well!