‘CASH MAKES T20 AN EASY CHOICE’
Cricket authorities urged to help all-format players deal with ‘unsustainable’ workloads
TRENT BOULT giving up his New Zealand Cricket contract is another sign of the revolution sweeping through the game – a change happening not at the leisurely pace of a Test match but at the breakneck speed of a Twenty20 innings.
A key figure in the teams that won the inaugural World Test Championship and finished runners-up in three limited overs World Cups, Boult will from now on have a “significantly reduced role” with the Black Caps.
The left-arm quick requested the release from his contract so he could spend more time with his young family. But a New Zealand Cricket (NZC) statement said the 33-year-old also wanted to make himself available for “domestic leagues”.
A crammed international calendar in three formats of the game and the added strain of playing in biosecure bubbles during the pandemic have pushed players like Boult to breaking point.
England talisman Ben Stokes quit the ODI format last month citing an “unsustainable” workload, while South Africa’s Quinton de Kock gave up playing Test cricket last year.
All three have, however, found time to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the trailblazer of the lucrative Twenty20 “domestic leagues” that are now proliferating around the world.
“The decisions that Quinton de Kock, and specifically Trent Boult, have made, point to a future of shorter international careers and more players happy to be part of the gig economy,” tweeted Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle. “With young families, it isn’t easy to play both, international cricket and T20 leagues.”
Mushrooming franchise cricket, including upcoming leagues in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa, is making it an easy choice for some players.
Bhogle said it would be unfair to criticise players who seek to prioritise franchise cricket for “greed and opportunism”.
“Do remember that cricketers finish their playing careers when most others are entering their best phase,” he added. “And we change jobs that offer more money and convenience, no?”
Several West Indies players have effectively turned into T20 freelancers, earning lot more from franchise cricket than they could have playing international cricket.
The uncertainty around the availability of their key players has frustrated West Indies chief coach Phil Simmons ahead of this year’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.
“It hurts. There’s no other way to put it,” an exasperated Simmons said last Wednesday (10). “But what can you do? I don’t think I should be begging people to play for their countries.”
The NZC chief executive, David White, ruled out more New Zealand cricketers following Boult’s example.
“They are still talking about Test cricket – and performing for New Zealand – as being incredibly important,” White told the Cricinfo website.
“The other thing is that if you are going to get a big offer from a big league, you’ve got to be a successful international cricketer.”
The International Cricket Council (ICC) discussed the growth of T20 leagues in its annual general meeting in Birmingham last month but anyone looking to them for leadership might be disappointed. The governing body has put the onus on the member boards to find balance between domestic and bilateral cricket to manage the workload of players.
Former England captain Andrew Strauss feels Test cricket and T20 can comfortably co-exist, despite the mushrooming of franchise-based leagues.
Strauss, who is currently the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) cricket committee, took into consideration the expanded two and-ahalf month window for the IPL while making the assessment.
“One thing we know is that in other countries, Test cricket does not pay the bills like it does here,” Strauss told the Daily Telegraph.
“The T20 format is the way a lot of people get introduced to the game in the first place. I still maintain they can sit together comfortably, Test and T20 cricket.
“But the challenge we have is (to provide a) manageable schedule that allows players to do both. That is really complicated. It’s multi-dimensional,” he said.
Strauss urged that players quitting for the riches of the T20 version of the game shouldn’t be criticised for their actions.
“They (the players) will always look at those opportunities side by side and decide what’s best for them, and you don’t hold that against them,” Strauss said.
“And so we need to continue promoting all the brilliant things that cricket in this country offers players. We want to have a strong, vibrant domestic game and we want to make sure the players are playing the right balance of formats so it’s not all drifting down that white-ball short-form route.
“There’s still plenty of players that want to challenge themselves to be the best Test cricketers they can be,” Strauss, who is leading the high performance review into the future of the English game, said. “I think it’s really important that we set ourselves up in this country, we set the game up in a way that allows us to be flexible and adaptable.”