What would the FTP look like if the Asian bloc split?

[Neil Pickup]

Purely playing devil's advocate - could England, SA, WI, Australia and NZ create something of a throwback to the days when tours included side games that weren't fourteen-a-side, and had time to actually acclimatise somewhere...?

It's actually remarkably difficult to fit these things around four Southern summers and one Northern one - and as a result it's a little anglocentric. One thing it certainly would do would be to bring back the top-drawer overseas players to the Championship.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

No, you won't get back to the long tours of one Country. If the number of teams drops you'll just get more spurious ODI Tournaments and 20/20's to fill the cash void.

 

[silentstriker]

WI wouldn't join the non-Asian bloc though, and perhaps SA wouldn't either. Could Australia, New Zealand, England and perhaps SA make it? Yea, I think they can.

 

[Malleeboy]

What the WI would do is debateable, I don't think the Bucknor incident has left them feeling warm and cosy with the amount of power the BCCI would have in a subcontinent based grouping.

As for SA, I think the administrators would back the subcontinent block, but I don't know if there wouldn't be a significant revolt by the mainly Afrikaans/English player base.


I think you'd find rapid development of Ireland, Scotland etc.

 

[silentstriker]

What the WI would do is debateable, I don't think the Bucknor incident has left them feeling warm and cosy with the amount of power the BCCI would have in a subcontinent based grouping.

As for SA, I think the administrators would back the subcontinent block, but I don't know if there wouldn't be a significant revolt by the mainly Afrikaans/English player base.


I think you'd find rapid development of Ireland, Scotland etc.

Bucknor incident is nowhere near big enough to cause a split. If such a split occurs sometime in the future, WI wouldn't let this hold them back.

 

[jeevan]

I think something like IPL will become one center of the cricketing world. Some inter-country tours will go on for the sake of pride etc and all non-Asian internationals will begin their careers there, but the most appealing will be harvested from that circuit into IPL.

Way too much money in cricket in India for this to be quite a feasile evolution. Come to think of it, is a possibility even if there is no split and the IPL managers are able to channel the interest of the Indian public.

 

[luckyeddie]

No, you won't get back to the long tours of one Country. If the number of teams drops you'll just get more spurious ODI Tournaments and 20/20's to fill the cash void.

Agreed.

The long tours were inevitable back in ancient history (when LE was a lad) because transport to and from the tour tended to be by sea and took weeks.

Investing that much time in getting to and from the destination where the tour was taking place meant that there was only ever time for one tour a year.

Also, there was no television millions, so a large number of side games were required to ensure that a few shillings came in.

 

[Malleeboy]

Bucknor incident is nowhere near big enough to cause a split. If such a split occurs sometime in the future, WI wouldn't let this hold them back.

I'm not saying the Bucknor incident would cause a split or that it would definitely cause the WICB to change their alliances. However the power the BCCI has now would be magnified in a split and they would be the major power and money producer for the other block. The current situation may make the WICB think about the role and power they would have in each of the sides in a split in world cricket if one was to occurr.


As for ODI and 20/20 matches, I think for Australia the Ashes tests are still a very big gate spinners. With a less crowded schedule we might return to 6 match Ashes series with one for each state capital.

 

[luckyeddie]

I'm not saying the Bucknor incident would cause a split or that it would definitely cause the WICB to change their alliances. However the power the BCCI has now would be magnified in a split and they would be the major power and money producer for the other block. The current situation may make the WICB think about the role and power they would have in each of the sides in a split in world cricket if one was to occurr.


As for ODI and 20/20 matches, I think for Australia the Ashes tests are still a very big gate spinners. With a less crowded schedule we might return to 6 match Ashes series with one for each state capital.

India is certainly where the money is, but as you say, The Ashes is still pretty significant.

I don't think we'd fancy getting pasted by them on an annual basis though.

 

[skipper]

Indian fans are already bored of too much of India-Pakistan clashes. If there is a split, we would be bored to death.

 

[Matt79]

Plus neither Pakistan or SL are exactly stable at the moment - there could be problems scheduling matches etc...

 

[chaminda_00]

Plus neither Pakistan or SL are exactly stable at the moment - there could be problems scheduling matches etc...

Even though are unstable I don't think the likes of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Kenya and India would have major problems sending their players on tours there. Maybe West Indies, but the rest wouldn't have issues.

 

[Craig]

Even though are unstable I don't think the likes of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Kenya and India would have major problems sending their players on tours there. Maybe West Indies, but the rest wouldn't have issues.

I've always found that interesting, why would it be no less dangerous to say the Indian team but not for Australia for example? If somebody's a target, they are a target no matter where they are from.

 

[Matt79]

We're more risk adverse, that's all. And its not true that you're a target no matter where you're from, although in the case of India or Australia in Pakistan, the Indian team would be a bigger target you'd have thought. But the Aussies would be a bigger target than the Kiwis or Saffies...

 

[chaminda_00]

Has more to do with the fact that other countries are more willing to take the risk, as there are similar problems in those countries from time to time, like in Kenya now. So traveling to those countries and situation isn't out of the norm. Obviously if there was a full scale war happening then it would be different situation.