Global Domination was the Goal...

Global Domination is what we will get. At a price.

    There was a headline in the Sydney Daily Telegraph a couple of days ago which would have brought a smile to many who work in the cricket media in the rest of the world: “IPL Supremacy Gone Mad!” yelled the lovable tabloid.

    The cause of the ire was the temerity of Ricky Ponting and Trevor Bayliss for abandoning their ‘day jobs’ in order to be present at the IPL Auction in Dubai. Ponting left the commentary box during the first Test against Pakistan after three days and Bayliss skipped a Sydney Thunder fixture in the Big Bash. They are head coaches of the Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively.

    There should be some empathy for the Aussies and their proud protection of the Big Bash. It’s their ‘baby’ and they’ve worked bloody hard to keep it healthy, even performing emergency surgery on it last year having pumped it full of steroids and grown it to an unsustainable two months in duration.

    But at least they still own their precious league. They created it with their own resources and Cricket Australia still own all eight teams. The money it generates, over and above Franchise expenses, is all theirs.

    The England Cricket Board may not admit it publicly, but the long-term financial goal when they established The Hundred was to sell the Franchise teams to private owners and make so much money that the domestic game would be financially stable for the rest of time. Obviously there would be lavish fees and commissions, but the goal was sound. They’ve already turned down an offer of £450m for a stake.

    Cricket Australia and the ECB have their issues navigating an independent route to a financial security, but at least they still have that option. Cricket South Africa doesn’t. Neither does any of the other major nations. The Caribbean Premier League, which was to have supported the game in the region, is effectively owned by IPL teams.

    The SA20, with its official shareholding divided between CSA (57.5%), Supersport (30%) and entrepreneur, Sundar Raman, with 12.5%, is structured towards assisting the South African game. But Supersport has provided all the money to build the league and the IPL teams have paid out all the cash to make it work. CSA’s majority shareholding is a paper asset, worth more than a sheet of A4 but not much, in the greater scheme of things.

The IPL’s real-life ownership of the SA20 is much better than not having the League at all. Or pretending that it could be self-funded, as the Mzansi Super League so emphatically, embarrassingly and expensively proved. But pretending that the SA20 belongs to SA is equally fraught with danger. The IPL owners have paid a lot of money up front and are committed to spending millions more dollars in future. Their expenditure is not inspired by philanthropy or the interests of CSA.

    The only surprise about speculation that the IPL will expand into a second window, in September/October, is that it has come so late. Global domination was always the target and a second edition of the tournament, probably in the T10 format so as to protect the mother tournament’s ‘integrity’, was just a question of time.

    The Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) chief executive, Todd Greenberg, said it would “create mayhem” with bilateral cricket. He was being extremely diplomatic. Most others involved in the administration of international cricket know it would spell the end of bilateral cricket as we have known it. In other words, if it is played at all outside the ‘big three’ nations, it will be without the best players, less marketable, generate less income and starve to death.

    There are clearly a lot of people who find the IPL Auction entertaining – which is why it’s televised. There were others who thought the concept distasteful from the start and have not changed their minds. It has nothing to do with a few of the best players in the world being paid a couple of million dollars for a couple of months work – they deserve it.

    What is irksome is the way it makes the unsold players feel. And the more the process is repeated further down the Franchise food-chain, the greater the problem becomes. After just one season it has become obvious to South Africa’s professional players that their careers are dependent on being purchased by an SA20 team. The money and ‘exposure’ are critical to their progress – esteem and confidence takes a battering if they are ignored.

    I’ve heard far too many players talking about “making as much money as I can” while forgetting the principle that hard work and improvement are still the best way to ensure improved remuneration. And having a common cause. It may be a team game played by individuals, but the individuals who cared about the team as much as themselves were usually more likely to succeed than the selfish ones. Perhaps that has now changed.   

    Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and happy holiday season to those who don’t!