For India, T20-focussed plan not easy to achieve
The growing global trend in cricket contracts is for players to either have a hybrid or free agent deal. Both give the cricketers a lot more freedom to make their career choices. Only 18% of players globally belong to ‘traditional markets’, those with a home domestic or international contract, and almost all of them belong to India.
These are the key findings of a report by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA). The Men’s Professional Cricket Global Employment Report released on Tuesday says 42% of the players sign hybrid contracts and 40% have deals giving them free agent status. Almost all the remaining 18% — taking the top 100 of the T20 Player Index as a sample group — belong to India.
These numbers show in which direction cricket is headed in this age of franchise T20 leagues. The contracts of India players with BCCI is also a marker when it comes to the national T20 team not excelling in global events. The Indian cricketer is unaffected by the shifting landscape of professional cricket employment because his T20 commitments outside of internationals are restricted to IPL. This helps India field full-strength teams in bilateral cricket round the year. The
report shows Virat Kohli played 89 days of international cricket in 2018 and Rishabh Pant 75 days in 2021 with most of them coming from Tests. It helps BCCI regulate player workload as Indian players keep away from the mushrooming T20 franchise leagues.
But is their T20 vision being hampered as a consequence?
After the semi-final exit at the T20 World Cup, there’s a demand in Indian cricket to wake up to the demands of T20 cricket. There are calls for a separate team, specialist captain, specialist coach, and selectors with a contemporary outlook. Given skipper Rohit Sharma’s workload, it won’t be a surprise if the national selectors
name a new T20I captain. It may be easier said than done.
As per the FICA report—indian players are not its members--before T20 cricket arrived, Tests comprised 22% of international matches in 2003. That dipped to 9% by 2021 with T20I matches taking up 71% of the calendar. T20IS have eaten up the ODI space too and it has shrunk 78% to 19%. While Pakistan played most fixtures, most of them T20IS, England and India played the most Tests, and most days of cricket, like in the previous years.
With Test cricket’s commercial viability proving to be a challenge, the 2023-27 Future Tours Program (FTP) also shows India, England and Australia playing the most Tests. However, in the case of England and Australia, their selectors get a much wider field to pick their T20 teams from. Australia’s Tim David was parachuted into international cricket following his success in leagues world over. English cricket has benefitted after shedding its reluctance to let players go to IPL. Now, ex-test skipper Joe Root wants to try his luck at the IPL auction to boost his T20 prospects.