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Southern hemisphere Twenty20 tournament
Three nations plan joint IPL spin-off
Cricinfo staff
October 24, 2008
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Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have confirmed they are planning a multi-nation franchise-owned Twenty20 tournament based on the IPL, which they hope to launch by 2011. Although the competition is still in the planning stages, the idea is to have city-based teams and schedule it at a time that would allow Indian stars to take part.
The concept will involve two separate conferences - an eastern division based in Africa and a western division in Australasia - and the top sides from each will progress to the finals. It will not replace the existing domestic Twenty20 competitions; instead it is most likely to be held in October with each nation free to also retain their state- or provincial-based tournaments.
The organisers want the competition to feed teams into the Champions League Twenty20. The southern hemisphere-based tournament, which as yet has no name, is another indication of the growing dominance of Twenty20.
The first season of the IPL was massively popular this year in India, where there is also the unsanctioned ICL competition, while England will soon be playing for US$20 million in the Stanford Super Series. Peter Young, Cricket Australia's spokesman, conceded it will be a challenge to squeeze the new tournament in but the organisers were confident it could be achieved.
"It'll be short, sharp and very focused but the exact number of games is yet to be determined," Young said. "Strategically we see that there's a finite amount of Twenty20 cricket that's likely to be ideal, with a number of major global blocks."
There is still a way to go before the finer details can be finalised, including the number of teams. There is also potential for the African conference to feature sides not based in South Africa and for the Australasian division to have teams from outside Australia and New Zealand. Domestic players are likely to feature heavily but the three boards are keen to ensure international stars, from India or England, for example, take part.
"Gathering a large number of the world's marquee players into a single competition over a compressed time-frame can capture the public imagination and create new audiences for cricket," Justin Vaughan, New Zealand Cricket's chief executive, said. "The challenge for the three southern-hemisphere boards is to create the stage for that opportunity to be captured in a way which complements international cricket."
Cricket Australia has been considering a franchise-based Twenty20 system for some time. James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, said it had become clear that to reach a critical mass, a regional approach was needed.
"The idea developed out of blue-sky Twenty20 thinking over the past 18 months," Sutherland said. "Regional-level Twenty20 cricket played at the level immediately below international cricket has shown it can capture the public imagination and create new audiences for cricket.
"But as we have seen in India, it needs critical mass to generate major public excitement. The regional concept we have been charged with developing provides that critical mass."
Cricket Australia is also keen to increase the international focus of its state-based Twenty20 tournament. From 2009-10 it will encourage the six state teams to recruit star players from overseas.
Cricket South Africa has shown a strong interest in the concept. "Cricket South Africa is keen to forge strong partnerships with boards around the world to ensure the continued growth of the game at various levels," said its chief executive, Gerald Majola. "While details of this new competition still need to be finalized, we are confident it will give cricket in South Africa a major boost, and will ultimately change the cricket landscape in our country."
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davidvh seems to be working on a flawed premise that New Zealand doesn't have good enough players, because I do not see why the three of the top four one day teams in the world shouldn't have a competition like this (i personally don't see how a semi-finalist in the only World Cup and number 4 one day team can be accused of not having good enough players). Ultimately, the quality of cricket should be higher than the IPL depending on foreign involvement and maybe every game won't be a sell-out but the increase in quality of cricket will lead to higher TV audiences (and therefore revenue) firstly to established cricketing nations, and secondly to the untapped East Asian (and US) market available, it is a way of growing the popularity of the game worldwide. It will also lead to a more competitive and entertaining (therefore, profitable) Champions League. The key will be to make it a relatively short competition, thus minimising costs, and maximising entertainment.
Posted by shanewarne63 on (October 25 2008, 23:41 PM GMT)It's absolutely a good thing. If Australia, New Zealand and South Africa create this new competition it will be an incentive for people such as New Zealands Shane Bond and Lou Vincent to stay in their country so they can earn big bucks but still play International Cricket. Great Idea!
Posted by donnish on (October 25 2008, 21:57 PM GMT)What about the enviromental impact of getting all the players and teams together; but I suppose with money at stake that goes out of the window too.
Posted by Dogevpr2 on (October 25 2008, 16:01 PM GMT)Like any product if there aren't enough buyers the product won't stay around. The die-hard"Test" supporters won't sustain the game,cricket needs options like 20/20 whether the die-hards like it or not.
Posted by usman10 on (October 25 2008, 08:41 AM GMT)i think as a supporter of a test playing i would love cricket to be played on the international level rather than different 20\20 leagues starting all over the world
Posted by BangaloreKid on (October 25 2008, 07:29 AM GMT)Nivalink, The ICC model of funding new countries to develop a cricket team has not been very successful. It requires that a team develop atleast 10-14 good players and perform well in many tournaments before they gain full-fledged ICC membership. Until then, the funding for the team and the players themselves is very modest. It takes a lot of time before which those good players would have retired or taken another line of profession for financial security. With leagues like these, a good player or a few good players from say Ireland/Kenya/Scottland etc. can choose cricket as a full-time profession, earn enough financial rewards and be popular that it inspires others from their nation to take up cricket and thereby building that critical mass- essentially a soccer model. Now if it works in cricket or not, only time will tell but it is worth trying..
Posted by Nivalink on (October 25 2008, 05:21 AM GMT)The Future tours programme (FTP) by ICC is anyways full of dud series and therefore its likely that market forces will tend to favour more IPL type franchise system eventually limiting FTP or drastically modified and relationships between IPL/ICL and other leagues will be more like FIFA vs other club bodies. Player pool will become much larger and there could be several leagues played simultaneously eventually. Administrators have to only worry about skill levels not dropping and the whole thing not becoming a big circus. Cricket is in for a big shake up thats for sure.
Posted by Dogevpr2 on (October 25 2008, 04:30 AM GMT)Back to the days of less Tests,to make them more special, and more 20/20 for entertainment and money-making. Many people go to an NBA game for the entertainment and competition without being diehard fans of basketball.If the cricket world were truly interested in having more people play, to get a bigger pool of talented athletes, then it would ensure cricket be at the 2012 Olympics,as Cricket2012Games.com is campaigning for.The world would start playing cricket, ex-cricketers would be in demand the world over to teach the game, and every form of cricket will get more interest.
Posted by davidvh on (October 25 2008, 04:04 AM GMT)Nah no thax.Ill rather watch the south african 20/20 competition and even if New zealand going to take part they wont haven A GOOD STANDARD OF CRICKET PLAYERS.they have some big heaters now like macullem and oram but they do not have as much as South Africa And Australia.
Posted by sitoten on (October 25 2008, 02:41 AM GMT)Where there is money, people will go after it. Rugby, soccer and cricket gather adequate crowds to sustain the sports, and 20/20 will be the same. 20/20 is about entertainment and immediate drama, and there is a market, but it has to be set up well. In the UK, a good percentage of the crowd don't have the vaguest idea about cricket, and are there for the fun. What's wrong with that? 20/20 may not be to everyone's taste, but it is excellent for the sport of cricket, and if it provides sufficient incentive to keep West Indies in the sport,rather than drift into baseball and basketball, then fantastic. Bear in mind that the skills for 20/20 are learned in the longer game.