Breakaway Cricket League in India

[silentstriker]

http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=363747&sid=SPO&ssid=88

Zee News is going to start another league! Couldn't be happier, I was always hoping this would happen. Hopefully this will make the lazy bastards at BCCI do something about actual cricket.

Only disgusting part is that its going to be an ODI league, but hopefully that changes.

 

[PY]

Even worse mate, it's starting as 20/20.

Shall be interesting to see if it pans out!

 

[honestbharani]

yeah, lots of things begin big but then lose steam. Zee sports is just unhappy that they have almost no share of the cricket pie. ESPN/Star gets matches of the ICC, the matches in England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. TEN SPORTS gets matches in Pakistan, SRi Lanka, West Indies. NEO SPORTS gets matches in India, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. All Zee have is the Afro/Asian Cup and other offshore matches of the BCCI. So they just want some kind of cricket to show on their channel. Don't read too much more into it. It is gonna fizzle out, most probably. These guys are no Kerry Packers.

 

[Bracken]

yeah, lots of things begin big but then lose steam. Zee sports is just unhappy that they have almost no share of the cricket pie. ESPN/Star gets matches of the ICC, the matches in England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. TEN SPORTS gets matches in Pakistan, SRi Lanka, West Indies. NEO SPORTS gets matches in India, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. All Zee have is the Afro/Asian Cup and other offshore matches of the BCCI. So they just want some kind of cricket to show on their channel. Don't read too much more into it. It is gonna fizzle out, most probably. These guys are no Kerry Packers.

Bingo. I would wager that even if it does get off the ground, anyone associated would be quietly told that they can choose to be a part of the new group, or they can have a chance to be involved in the establishment, but not both.

No way will the BCCI allow another group to get their hands on even a small part of Indian cricket.

 

[AussieDominance]

Hope this works especially the Juniors concept.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Good news. Not that I want to see a breakaway league happening and further weakening the standard in the Ranji Trophy, but it might force the BCCI into doing something about the state of cricket there.

 

[open365]

I can't help but thinking it's a bit optomistic aiming to get 16 teams in 3 years and be left with a compeition that's more competetive than the BCCI ran one.

I admit i don't know much about Indian domestic cricket but surely the main groups of cricketers that will join this new leauge are the ones who aren't getting a fair crack for their current side because they aren't good enough.

I know that would aid development, but to have a competetive leauge to bring in the money the quality needs to be there and i don't see the ICL bringing much quality from the current leauge.

 

[adharcric]

This is good news but don't get too excited - it may turn out to be a money-making farce. I will wait to see the players, infrastructure and processes that are involved in the ICL before taking the concept seriously. Really, they should forget about the league and focus on fitness regimes and talent scouting - that will be far more useful than a bunch of Twenty20 matches among a bunch of no-namers (that's my assumption for now). SS and I should start one of these some day.

 

[LA ICE-E]

hhhmmm....is that really going to be better for indian cricket? it may be like the world series in the 80's but on the other hand it might not...cause i'm sure the BCCI is going to bad the players that take part in the breakaway league...

 

[pup11]

Now how is this thing gonna work, they are talking about bringing in international players from other countries and Indian international players + domestic players.



But how are these international players gonna take time-out of their tightly scheduled international commitments.



I guess all the international players would be those who have been dropped from their respective teams.

 

[LA ICE-E]

well it doesn't have to be that way...i don't think they are not trying to do a Kerry Packer here...but it could happen like it happens in county cricket...but if they want to it with indian international players then they need to have a deal with BCCI and may be like cut down on the unneeded international cricket...or use the dropped international players or something like that because otherwise indian players couldn't play because of their contracts with BCCI

 

[Matt79]

hhhmmm....is that really going to be better for indian cricket? it may be like the world series in the 80's but on the other hand it might not...cause i'm sure the BCCI is going to bad the players that take part in the breakaway league...

Don't think it would do to underestimate the threat this poses - from my limited understanding this has the potential to be a new WSC. The articles I read said that Zee Tv had taken this step after their bid for the broadcast rights was rejected by the BCCI, despite it being the highest bid. They were prepared then to pay $380 million dollars for the rights for 4 years, so its not that they aren't prepared to spend money on this to make it work.

You can say that the BCCI would never let Zee get away with this. WSC established pretty much that you can't forbid pros from playing for who they want to - so then it becomes a question of who can convince the players they represent the best option for their self-interest. If Zee can persuade the majority of the Indian stars that they represent the best option, BCCI might find itself with no option but to eat humble pie and make a deal with Zee - just like the establishment had to do with Packer.

Admittedly the situation is tougher for somebody trying to stage a breakaway league these days as international players get very well paid already, but it doesn't seem to me that you can discount a determined effort by somebody with the kind of money Zee apparently have.

 

[Richard]

And I was only saying recently that we'd never see another Kerry Packer!

Seriously astounded that once again a TV company has decided to fight a Cricket Board.

No doubt the perpetrator of this will be lavished with praise for being in reality nothing other than a selfish **** who couldn't take his TV company being shunned in 30 years' time.

 

[Matt79]

And I was only saying recently that we'd never see another Kerry Packer!

Seriously astounded that once again a TV company has decided to fight a Cricket Board.

No doubt the perpetrator of this will be lavished with praise for being in reality nothing other than a selfish **** who couldn't take his TV company being shunned in 30 years' time.

Selfish? Yes, shame on them for being in business to make money! I have no problem with what Zee are trying to do, apart from the fact that its likely to interfere with cricket that I'd like to watch.

The reality is, its up to the boards of the world to keep their houses in order so even if somebody decides to do something like this, it won't affect their business. Whether we like it or not, international cricket is a big business, and with the amount of money involved, there are always going to be people willing to try and grab a chunk if they can. WSC established in court that the existing national boards have no God-given monopoly on cricket or those who play the sport. If the BCCI was a competent and credible lot then I'd doubt this would go anywhere. As it is...

 

[Richard]

I can't help thinking that this is likely to be a repeat of the Packer Schism, though maybe not quite so catastrophic as it was.

I'm well aware that cricket is massive business, but the fact of that is that it has it's downsides and this is one of the worst examples of them.

 

[Prince EWS]

I can't help thinking that this is likely to be a repeat of the Packer Schism, though maybe not quite so catastrophic as it was.

I'm well aware that cricket is massive business, but the fact of that is that it has it's downsides and this is one of the worst examples of them.

Damn this post Richard! Damn it to hell!

The new posts page would have looked so hilarious if you hadn't posted it.

 

[Richard]

No fan of the new-posts page myself, TBH.

I much prefer sequential browsing of the forums.

 

[silentstriker]

I can't help thinking that this is likely to be a repeat of the Packer Schism, though maybe not quite so catastrophic as it was.

I'm well aware that cricket is massive business, but the fact of that is that it has it's downsides and this is one of the worst examples of them.

Not really - assuming it is successful, this is the best thing that could happen to Indian cricket. Both BCCI and Zee are in it for the money, except Zee is an actual company with a financial stake in making sure cricket is successful. BCCI is a political body where the money that comes in, is usually pocketed by someone in a bureaucratic position. BCCI still doesn't even have a web site, let alone a professional CEO or an office building.

How anyone can say that a challenge - any challenge - to the corrupt and useless bastards at BCCI isn't a massive help to cricket in India is beyond me.

 

[Matt79]

Nobody has ever been able to explain to me what real harm WSC did to the sport of cricket. I'd say that overall, in the long term, it produced as many positives as negatives.

 

[Richard]

Long-term there weren't a hell of a lot of negatives. But Test cricket was badly, badly tainted for the best part of 2 years. That was a massive bad thing.

And I have tried to explain a few of the other long-term negatives. You'll forgive me I can't really be bothered to do them all again.