Pay for it in the next life: moment of truth at hand for BBL privatisation push

PL reports that on the the state of the play with a decision to be made by Easter

A decision should be made on Cricket Australia’s push to invite private ownership into the BBL by Easter. Much is yet to be nailed down. The ball is in New Zealand’s court regarding its participation in the eventual resurrection/expansion of the league. My mail is NZ will not agree. Here, the states will have had their say, and then it is up to the CA Board to decide whether it should continue with what one state chair has described as the biggest decision in the history of Australian cricket, but it will be sensitive to the wishes of those state bodies, at least one of which, NSW, has serious qualms about what is on the table.

Some come to drain the swamp; others want to re-create it.

March is a difficult month.

Here in Australia, the Sheffield Shield teams, like stragglers in a marathon, stumble toward the finish line, the officials picking up road barriers behind them, only a patient handful of friends and family in place to provide that last patter of applause. The winter sports so impatient that they’ve begun already.

Over in Western Australia, the women play their first Test match of the summer, a good two months after the last men’s Test.

Franz Kafka’s short story A Hunger Artist tells the story of the world’s last remaining practitioner of the once-popular art of starving oneself for popular entertainment. It is an unforgettable story and begins thus:

During these last decades the interest in professional fasting has markedly diminished. It used to pay very well to stage such great performances under one’s own management, but today that is quite impossible. We live in a different world now. At one time the whole town took a lively interest in the hunger artist; from day to day of his fast the excitement mounted; everybody wanted to see him at least once a day; there were people who bought season tickets for the last few days and sat from morning till night in front of his small barred cage …

First-class cricket does, at least, continue to pay very well. And, not without some relevance, as demonstrated by the intense interest in certain performances ahead of a Test series. The crowds, however, stopped attending well before most of us were born.

This time of year, the Shield and bilateral international cricket bends not so much around the winter codes as the immovable and apparently irresistible object that is the Indian Premier League. Long conditioned to the primacy of this tournament, nobody dares raise more than an eyebrow at this inevitability.

Cricinfo led its Australian coverage midweek with news that Travis Head, Cameron Green and Josh Inglis are “set for Shield return after T20 World Cup exit”. Head will play one game and skip another before heading to the IPL, meaning he will miss the final if South Australia make it. Green will miss this round, but play the following before heading to the IPL to join the Kolkata Knight Riders where he is due a $4.2m payday. Inglis will miss the last round to attend his wedding, and then honeymoon later at the IPL. Players don’t need the IPL as an excuse. Steve Smith is absent, presumably in New York, but will be in Pakistan with a clutch of countrymen who have found refuge in the adjacent tournament. Mitch Marsh has given up red-ball cricket.

Vijay Tagore reports on Cricbuzz this morning that the IPL’s governing council is set to announce this year’s competition will begin on March 28 or 29, with the final to be held on May 31. Only Pakistan has been bold enough to compete in the IPL window and, as such, benefits from an impressive selection of players unwanted by the Indian league. Australians Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and possibly David Warner among them.

Meanwhile, Australian cricket considers what some are calling a strategic crisis.

How high’s the water, mama?

Those who run the game in Australia are gripped by the very real fear that the ground-breaking BBL is losing its lustre. Is being outshone by wealthier leagues. If the franchise leagues are the grand slam, the BBL is slipping down the ranks and in danger of losing its relevance as similar competitions, with the heavyweight backing of private investors, prove more attractive to domestic and international players.

South Africa’s SA20 is in direct competition and offering top players more than twice what the BBL does. The UAE-based IL20 has staked December. England’s Hundred, supercharged by its sale, owns August. The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) follows hot on its heels. The USA’s MLC is turning heads. And, Australian stars seem to have been nailed to the front of a new European competition.

The BBL shone brightly when the only real alternative was the IPL, but these days players have a smorgasbord of opportunities.