Budge up, here comes another tournament

Next time you hear an international cricketer complain about burn-out, laugh in their face. When enough money is at stake, they will happily play some more. This is the only inference you can make from the news today that the eight-day Champions League Twenty20 tournament is to be shoehorned into an eight-day gap between the one-day and Test series featuring England and India in December.

The final ODI in Delhi ends the day before the Champions League starts and the first Test in Ahmedabad starts the day after the last Twenty20 match. I don't yet know where the Champions League will be held but Delhi and Ahmedabad are 600 miles apart, hardly just down the road. You'd hope that players would need a rest day between matches.

The only Englishman likely to be involved in both the domestic and international matches is Owais Shah, unless Andrew Strauss is released from his central contract, (I wonder what Shah's reaction will be if England say "Sorry you can't play in the first Test, Owais, but you're knackered from playing for Middlesex") but there will be a few Indians who will expect to play in the whole shebang. And don't think for one second that if Hampshire had qualified for the Champions League, the new England captain wouldn't have said "ta-ta" to his team for a week and gone to fill his pockets.

And to think that we are only having a two-Test series between England and India because the players wanted to be home in time for Christmas. I imagine if they staged a big-money Twenty20 tournament somewhere on December 25 they would leap at it.

The reason that the Champions League has been moved to December from its original date in late September is because the ICC is worried that the Champions Trophy may over-run (although given that the tournament is still up in the air at the moment because of security fears, maybe it was worth pencilling it in). But what about if there is rain in the final ODI between England and India and they need to use a reserve day? Will the Twenty20 wait or will they just declare it a draw?

Another knock-on effect of the move is that Australia's Test match with South Africa in Perth has been moved from December 12 to December 17. The Champions League franchises no doubt think that there is nothing wrong with tweaking the international calendar in such a way, but what about the fans who have bought tickets?

Australia v South Africa is a battle to decide the best Test nation on the planet. One would assume that there would be hot demand for tickets; Australia and England are about the only countries where such matches sell out months in advance. I know that if I had bought a ticket for that game and for some reason was unable to attend the week after I would be seriously hacked off that I had been denied Test cricket because of some moneymaking scheme to make a few club cricketers and Indian TV executives wealthier.

If a suitable date in the calendar was not available this year, the Champions League should simply have been moved to next year. Or the ICC should have insisted that its calendar remain unchanged and that players had to pick whether they were Test cricketers or club cricketers. The trouble is that they probably weren't sure that the right answer would be given.

Comments

[Nightwatchgirl]

Player burn out will always be a term banded around when discussing the volumme of international cricket. But the IPL this year proves that it's still money that motivates players, and motivates the grounds as well. The Oval has announced that tickets in the OCS stand for the Ashes next year will be going for £100 a piece (not including the mark-up when the touts get their hands on them). Cricket runs the risk of pricing out the real fans, and filling up grounds with corporate business folk keen on impressing their clients. It's a dark day for the greatest game of all.

[Peter McGuinness]

As predicted - it's 'All Over Red Rover' for the real game of cricket.

Also as predicted, it didn't take long. Not long at all. Less than 12 months actually. Bumping around Test Cricket Matches between the 1 and 2 countries in the world to accommodate a anemic faux contest, pretty much says all there is to say about the ICC.

I vote to split the whole bad joke up right now, and get the inevitable over and done with. The sooner it's done, the sooner some dignity can be rehabilitated into the great game, and the quicker that those who couldn't care less about it can move on and do other things with their own 'sports entertainment'.

Paying lip service to co-existence is insulting to the intelligence. One might as well try to re-unite Rugby and Rugby League. Get on with it, I say.

[Mike - Flintoffs Ashes]

I wonder how long it will be before the buffoons at the ICC kill the goose that lay the golden egg?

Whether die hard Test cricket fans like me like it or not, Twenty20 is here to stay and has a place in the international calendar but at what price?

Limited attention...I mean overs cricket will always attract fans and sponsors but it's Test match cricket that the players and the real cricket fans want to see. It is, after all, the ultimate cricketing test. 5 days toe to toe. Winner takes all. Well unless it's a draw...

By shoehorning yet more shortened versions of the game into the calendar the ICC are treading a dangerous line. As you say, player fatigue will come into play here. Sure you can have separate ODI, Twenty20 and Test squads but, let's face it, Kevin Pietersen puts bums on seats. So do Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Murali and Freddie Flintoff so are the ICC expecting these guys to play all forms of the game 365 days a year?

[Homer]

Patrick,

An entire blog post by a British journalist and no mention of the Ashes! Are you positive you are English?

Cheers,