Tony Becca REMEMBER THE late 1970s and the coming of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket - the tournament that changed the game and the lives of those who played the game?
Well, according to CricInfo, the bible of cricket news, there seems to be a few more changes on the way an it is too early to say, in terms of providing entertainment for the fans, in terms of spreading the game and in terms of more money for the players, hopefully they will do to cricket what WSC did for the game some 30 years ago.
According to CricInfo, the BCCI, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is in the process of forming a two-tier cricket league in four countries, the league will comprise domestic Twenty20 tournaments in each country, the teams will be able to hire players from anywhere around the world, and there will be an international tournament which will match the top teams against each other in a style similar to European football's Champions League.
Franchise owned team
According to CricInfo, the teams in each country will be owned like franchises in American sport, they will be auctioned off to big businesses which will then staff them with 15 to 20 players, there will be a cap on the amount of money a player can be bought or sold for and, overall, that will mean more employment for cricketers, an opportunity for domestic cricketers to earn more, and more jobs for coaches, administrators, scorers and other categories necessary to the proper running of the professional game.
According to CricInfo, IMG, the International Management Group which was once, over 20 years ago, approached to market West Indiescricket but who declined because, in its opinion, the market for West Indies cricket was not big enough, has met with Sharad Pawar, the president of the BCCI, and is set to meet with representatives of Australia, South Africa and England in Singapore this week.
Do you know about the proposed Indian Cricket League, the ICL that has signed 44 Indian first-class players, the likes of the retired Brian Lara of the West Indies and the disgruntled Inzamam-ul Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq and Imran Farhat of Pakistan, some retired Australian and Indian players and some Indian administrators including Kapil Dev?
Well the BCCI does not recognise the ICL and is trying to destroy it, even though the BCCI and the PCB, the Pakistan Cricket Board, have threatened to ban anyone who signs with the ICL from representing India and Pakistan the BCCI has said that any Indian cricketer who signs for the ICL will lose his pension, and even though the BCCI has just recently substantially increased the fees paid to players in their domestic cricket, the BCCI has said that its proposed new league has nothing to do with the ICL and its proposal.
According to CricInfo, the BCCI, represented by Lalit Modi, and Cricket Australia, represented by James Sutherland, are doing their thing in the interest of the game, in an effort to spread the game, and have been planning the league for many months now.
And that is not the only thing that is likely to change cricket.
Starting tomorrow in India, the Delhi High Court will be hearing a petition filed by the ICL and challenging the BCCI's monopoly of representing the country.
Although India's laws state, among other things, that there can only be one body representing a sport at the national level and the BCCI has governed cricket in India since its formation in 1929, the ICL, in its petition, is seeking to get the High Court to tell the BCCI that it cannot threaten former Indian players with the non-payment of their pension, to tell the BCCI that it must stop claiming that it represents India and to tell the BCCI that it cannot prevent the ICL from using the name of the country or from using the national flag.
Some interesting times are ahead for cricket - and especially so in India, Australia, South Africa and England if not in the West Indies.
The league planned by the BCCI also includes Australia, South Africa and England and, according to CricInfo, it is simply because they are the countries whose cricket economy, mainly because of the fan support for the game, can support such a structure.
In other words, cricket in the West Indies, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh cannot support their involvement and certainly in the West Indies, one reason is the lack of fan support for the game - the lack of support which, unlike in India, Australia, South Africa and England, and except for may be Saturdays and Sundays, sees near empty stands even at Test matches.
That means, as I and so many others have said so many times, that West Indies cricket is in trouble not only because of the many other problems facing it, but also because of its poor financial situation.
The financial situation
Based on today's needs, based on the money needed to provide the proper infrastructure - coaches, good pitches and outfields, practice and training sessions, bats and balls and organised competitions, including a professional first-class tournament, based on the money needed to pay staff, umpires and more so the Test players, cricket in the West Indies, like cricket in New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka not to mention in Zimbabwe and Bangladesh is like a poor relation, a very poor one at that, of cricket in India and to a lesser extent in Australia, South Africa and England.
After Packer cricket, cricket everywhere benefited. The game, the earnings of the top players and the respect for the players, in most countries, were never the same.
The question now is this: After the big four, after the rich four, after the BCCI, Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa and the ECB and Wales have come together, after the cream of the world's cricketers are bought at auction, what will happen to the other teams - to the West Indies and company?
Although there are many players who want every cent that is in cricket and therefore want to play everything from Test cricket to Twenty20 even though, whenever it suits them, when are not performing, they complain about fatigue, about playing too much cricket, more players, it seems, will share the money that is now in cricket in India, Australia, South Africa and England and, more importantly, it seems that after so many years of talking about it, at last, and to the delight of some, there could be two tiers in world cricket.
As so many feared, however, it may not be one with whites only and one with blacks only, and neither will it be one for the strong and one for the weak.
Although, with India being the one, one will have only one black team and with New Zealand being the one, one will have only one white team, it will be one for the rich and one for the poor.
