WOAKES LIFELINE
New T20 plan is a winner
CHRIS WOAKES believes T20 cricket could follow Premier League football – making household names of the players and providing the game with a huge shot in the arm.
The Warwickshire all-rounder heads off to play in the Indian Premier League this week, earning himself £500,000 for six weeks’ work with the Kolkata Knight Riders.
That is a eye-watering sum – but with Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills getting £1.7million and £1.4million respectively for a similar stint in the world’s richest cricket competition – clearly the game is now generating big bucks.
With his central contract for England, Stokes’ salary for the year will top £2.2m – cash that would have been unheard of prior to the rise in popularity of the game’s shortened version.
English cricket has agreed to revamp itself this week with a franchised eight-city T20 competition. And, asked if it could
nB become the new football, Woakes said: “I honestly don’t know how far all this can go.
“If you go back 20 years to when franchised cricket, like the IPL or Big Bash in Australia wasn’t around, everyone would have laughed at a suggestion like that.
“But now you cannot say it will never happen – I certainly can’t.
“It is developing at a real pace. That’s positive because the changes will bring new people into the sport.
“If youngsters see players such as Stokesy doing well for themselves, then they will be inspired by it.
“For instance, Tymal doesn’t play anything but T20 cricket. He bowls at 90mph, he’s left-armed and he has great variation.
“People growing up will think, ‘I could be a death bowler like Tymal, play in the IPL and earn a fortune’, so I can understand why there could be an explosion of interest.
“To an extent, we’re seeing that happen now. And Tymal and Ben are the perfect examples of it.”
But ex-England spinner Ashley Giles – now director of cricket at Edgbaston – sounded a warning.
He said: “The thing about Test cricket in England is that is what has given players their profile. If you do well in a Test for England, then your profile has risen.
“But if you just jump on that T20 bandwaggon and you get it wrong for a couple of seasons, what are you going to do then?” Start: 11am Start: 11am