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Originally Posted by Seamer Would you say the same thing, if those games were changed to 9-a-side matches with 20 minutes each half? That would be the soccer equivilent to 20-20 cricket. |
Of course not - but the EPL has taken a successful game and made it at least as successful as it always was and arguably more so and without making any fundamental changes - it's still eleven a side and played over ninety minutes. It has attracted people from outside England to play in England, admittedly, but all those guys remain eligible for selection for their national sides and in fact the majority of them who are eligible continue to play international football. Why do you think it would be different in cricket?
Essentially, the ICL can't do much to change cricket at its most fundamental level. They may decide to play 70 overs instead of fifty, or have longer matches played over seven four hour days, or they may favour a six over game which can be fitted in between commercial breaks on the TV. But it's very unlikely that they will be playing nine-a-side "cricket" with a sponge ball, three sets of stumps and each man in having a lacrosse stick instead of a bat. And bringing money into the game will not ruin it any more than it has ruined football for those who enjoy that sport. The only way ICL could detract from international cricket would be by forbidding its players from playing in internationals - and frankly, if they try that and succeed, international cricket will not be losing anyone it wants to retain.
Seamer, when Kerry Packer launched World Series Cricket the establishment thought it was the end of the world. Now the establishment runs matches under floodlights with teams wearing coloured strips and playing with a white ball - unimaginable before Packer did it, routine now and I don't hear anyone complaining about it. The ICL, if it gets off the ground, may have some more good ideas which can be run alongside the formats we are used to now or instead of some of them. They might force test cricket to the margins in the sub-continent, but that is something which is happening already, not because the suppliers are forcing it but because test cricket is not what the public wants to buy over there. Test cricket can live alongside the shorter formats and will do so in some areas of the world as long as the punters buy the tickets. I don't see the end of the world coming at us here.