T20 turns suitcases into treasure chests, if the load does not drag you down

By now even parttime cricket followers will be aware of the future scenario in which the world’s best players are owned by IPL franchises on multiyear, multitournament, multimillion-dollar contracts. They would then be “leased” back to their countries to play in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) annual World Cup. If they are fit and “willing” — the player and the franchise.

When the England Cricket Board (ECB) eventually give up on their silly Hundred tournament, turn it into another T20 competition and sell the teams to the IPL, world domination will be almost complete. If the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) do actually team up with the Saudis and make their players available for yet another new league —a second IPL, effectively — it will be complete. But those megaplayer contracts may not be as straightforward as they might seem. All well and good in theory and on paper, but practically?

Almost three decades ago sport scientist Tim Noakes travelled with the SA national team at the invitation of head coach and personal friend, Bob Woolmer. To this day most cricket followers have no idea just how far ahead of his time Bob was. They remember some of the gimmicks and quirks of his innovative thinking, such as the earpiece worn by Hansie Cronjé in a warm-up match before the 1999 World Cup, but there was so much more depth.

Fascinated by the ruthlessness with which cricketers were treated by their employers during his own career, Bob wanted to explore ways in which on-field performances could be enhanced with a more informed and empathetic approach to playing schedules, the balance between work, rest and play.

Noakes travelled with the team to the 1996 World Cup on the subcontinent and observed the playing squad and management at close quarters without intruding. One of the conclusions he reached was that player performance would inevitably begin to decline after between five and six weeks on tour, away from home.

There would be exceptions that proved the rule, naturally — a young Herschelle Gibbs gave the impression he would have been happy living the touring life for five or six months at a time. But for the majority the emotional if not physical toll began affecting their bat and ball output at about the same time.

The IPL lasts almost double that length of time so it is to the great credit of the majority of the players that they have maintained their standards — though the decline in the last couple of weeks was obvious among the teams which were first to be eliminated, Delhi and Hyderabad.

The good news for the IPL franchises is that all the other tournaments in which they have a stake last a month so all their players should be at their best from start to finish. Except ... how much quality revitalisation time will they actually get between tournaments?

Comparisons between cricket’s new future and the English Premier League are understandable. The football clubs own the players and are required to release them in Fifadesignated windows to play for their countries, unless they have retired from international football. Or are “injured”.

The difference, of course, is that the footballers get to live in their comfortable homes for at least three or four days a week. No five-week tours for them every few months. The World Cup is the longest they are away from their home comforts and that’s a maximum of a month every four years.

And what will the franchises do with their stars between tournaments, once they have signed them up? Send them home for rest and recuperation? Maybe. But the likelihood is that sponsorship and marketing commitments and mini “exhibition” tournaments will take up much of their free time between tournaments and, after all, they will be on 12-month contracts.

Quinton de Kock would be a prime candidate for such a contract. As things stand, if he continues on a Cricket SA contract and plays in the annual ICC event, he stands to earn about R15m a year. A franchise contract would be worth at least double that, probably three times as much.

But a couple of years ago he moved from Johannesburg to Thesen Island, Knysna, for the golf, fishing and general lifestyle. That’s what playing in the IPL can do for you. Would he be prepared to spend just a couple of weeks a year there to play virtually nonstop T20 cricket around the world? Maybe, for a year or two.

There will be some players for whom such a lifestyle is appealing. Others may feel they need to “catch up”. Heinrich Klaasen turns 32 in a couple of months and has been underappreciated by the Proteas for years. He has watched Faf du Plessis play a dozen years of IPL with earnings in excess of R100m from that tournament alone. Nobody should blame Klaasen if he accepted such an offer.

But as Noakes concluded all those years ago, sportsmen go stale quickly living out of suitcases and cricket, even the short-form version takes a toll unlike any other.*