‘It would be an earthquake’: IPL’s global push to reshape cricket

Since 2014, Andre Russell of Jamaica has enjoyed an unforgettable run with the hugely popular Kolkata Knight Riders in the hugely popular Indian Premier League, a combination of hard hitting and fast bowling perfectly suited to the fast pace and short format of Twenty20 Cricket Tournament.

Soon, he’s debuting not one but two other Knight Riders franchises. Next month, he will play for the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League, followed by a stint in January with the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders for the inaugural season of the UAE Twenty20 Cricket League.

More than a decade after the IPL revolutionized the game in India, its clubs are on a global acquisition spree. Bands like Knight Riders, partly owned by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, and Mumbai Indians by entrepreneur Mukesh Ambani, have more than a dozen franchises from the Gulf to the US. IPL teams last month bought all six franchises in the upcoming Twenty20 League in South Africa.

The trend may be a lucrative opportunity for IPL owners, but for cricketers, executives and fans, it is the start of a transformation they say could change the future of the game.

Elite cricket has always been built around international teams and five-day Test matches, a longer format considered to be the most complex form of the game. But with the financial success of the IPL and its three-hour Twenty20 matches, observers said cricket is increasingly becoming a club game like football, with the explosion of IPL-inspired leagues saving more money and placing greater demands on players’ time.

“What we are seeing is a complete paradigm shift for the entire sport, from the way it is played to the way it is played,” said Deep Dasgupta, commentator and former India and IPL player. “It changes everything.”

Russell, a traveling Knight Rider, has not played for the West Indies international since last year and told Sky Sports this month he needed to give his family “the best chance”.

New Zealand speedball player Trent Bolt recently terminated his national contract in part to make “himself available to the domestic leagues”, according to the country’s cricket board. England’s multi-tier Ben Stokes retired last month from international one-day cricket, a mid-length format, to devote more time not just to test matches but to Twenty20.

“What may happen over the next 10 years or so is that you will end up owning all of these franchises around the world, just like the Premier League football, and you will end up with little gaps where international cricket can be played, Dave Houghton, coach of Zimbabwe, recently told The Hindu newspaper.

Mubasher Osmani, Secretary General of the Emirates Cricket Council, said that the proceeds from the new UAE league will help in the development of the game. “Cricket is currently struggling economically,” he said in many countries. We have to think innovatively [about how] To bring cricket back, and make it a real world event like football.”

Executives and analysts said the trend is largely driven by IPL and its team owners, which range from Indian celebrities to industry conglomerates.

Since its launch in 2008, the league has made unprecedented gains in cricket, thanks to media outlets and lucrative sponsorship deals. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, in June sold media rights for 2023-2027 for $6.2 billion to Disney and Viacom18, a joint venture between James Murdoch and Ambani’s Reliance Industries. On a per-game basis, the IPL is now the second most valuable sports league globally, after the National Football League.

The overseas expansion of IPL teams, which generate profits and are valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars each, follows a strategy that is being replicated across the sport. In football, City Football Group, owner of the English Premier League champions Manchester City, has stakes in more than 10 clubs around the world.

With each season of the IPL lasting only a few weeks, outside franchises allow teams to redeploy staff and keep fans engaged during an extended period off-season. While players are contracted on a league-by-league basis, it also creates the possibility that future sports groups will be able to contract players like Russell throughout the year, and move them seamlessly across franchises during the year.

“Having other teams playing at other times of the year leads to economies of scale,” said Simon Hughes, a former cricketer and co-author of a book on Twenty20 cricket. “They have become brands and brands that want to grow.”

The success of the new tournaments is far from guaranteed. While IPL viewers benefit from a huge number of cricket-loving locals, small nations that play cricket often struggle to attract an audience large enough to lure lucrative deals from broadcasters, advertisers and sponsors. In South Africa, two of the 20 previous tournaments have failed.

IPL team owners face one big limitation: the BCCI bans Indian players from participating in Twenty20 tournaments without their permission, a policy that executives said is designed to protect the IPL’s precedence. Without the Indian players, the new tournaments may serve to excite Indian fans whose viewership increases their value to broadcasters.

“All these tournaments are trying to attract Indian eyeballs,” said Mike Fordham, former CEO of the Rajasthan Royals IPL team now working on the UAE league. “It’s a balance between interest from India and creating the most exciting product for your local market.”

Santosh N, managing partner at D and P Advisory in Bangalore, said the new teams were unlikely to increase the profitability of IPL owners immediately. But with an annual franchise fee of several million dollars, the financial damage to the IPL is also limited if they fail. “Acquisitions are more strategic in nature and may add long-term value, but they don’t add much in the short term,” he said.

Twenty20’s explosion of leagues has divided cricket fans.

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Defenders of the model argue that it will drive investment in the sport and foster a larger pool of talent. The UAE league stipulates that each team must have a share of locals and those from lower-ranked cricket nations such as Afghanistan or Ireland. “We want this to be a way for cricket to grow,” Fordham said.

But others, especially die-hard Test cricket fans, fear that the game will suffer as players devote more time to local tournaments.

While the richest cricket boards such as those in England or Australia may continue to attract top players with big contracts, some fear that players from smaller cricket nations that cannot financially compete with the IPL will be drawn towards domestic tournaments.

“I am sad,” said Sharda Ugra, India’s cricket writer. “It will be an earthquake and it will fundamentally change the game. It is not that Test cricket is going to die, but the tension will be [between test matches and] Players are killing themselves for Twenty20.”

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