(Tony Cozier argues that advent of the IPL has thrown the future direction of cricket into confusion)
By Tony Cozier
In MUMBAI
It will become the biggest sport on the planet in 10 years, supplanting even football, Sir Allen Stanford proclaimed last week.
While Twenty20 cricket taking over London’s Wembley, Rio’s Maracana and Barcelona’s Nou Camp before global warming turns those iconic football stadiums into giant swimming pools, far less in 10 years, is far-fetched fantasy, it is easy to comprehend the source of the Antigua-based Texan billionaire’s hyperbole and his intention to put his money where his mouth is.
It is only two years since the immediate impact of the shortest form of the game on English cricket prompted Stanford to pump nearly US$40 million each into two seasons of his own Twenty/20 Tournament at his own ground alongside Antigua’s international airport.
In the interim, the stirring success of the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Champion-ship in South Africa last September has spawned two rival leagues in India that have lured most of the most prominent players of the day with pay packets previously the preserve of top footballers.
The packed stadiums the official Indian extravaganza, the Indian Premier League (IPL), has attracted, the hype that accompanied it and, not least, the revelation that more than half the professional players in England say they would retire early to join has thrown the future direction of the game as a whole into confusion.
It has confirmed Stanford’s firm and often stated belief that Twenty20 is the game of the future. At the same time, it has prompted him to take a different tact in his predictable expansion from regional to universal involvement, without losing sight of his original commitment to West Indies cricket.
In spite of the quarter-century he has based part of his worldwide financial enterprise in the Caribbean, Stanford, a former American football college player, knew little of the intricacies of cricket when he set up his Twenty/20 Tournament. As head of an organisation that deals in such things, what he did know was a worthwhile investment when he spotted it.
Yet his purpose was unclear at the time.
The common question was what did he possibly hope to gain out of a venture involving the mini-states of a largely insignificant part of the world, several with little cricketing credentials, staged in an arena holding no more than 7,000 spectators?
His response was that, since he had seen the depressing effect of its drastic decline on his fanatical employees in Antigua, his aim was to reenergise West Indies cricket.
With his proficient organization, his slick promotion, his massive prize money and the advice of the eminent past West Indies players, he appointed as directors, he has already largely achieved that goal. The two Stanford Twenty/20 Tournaments have been undeniable hits.
Yet this was unlikely to be the limit of his ambitions. The Stanford Group’s interests are global and he quickly took his cricket in that direction as well.
He initially tried to put on a one-off, US$5 million winner-take-all match between South Africa and a team chosen from the Stanford Twenty/20 in 2006 but was thwarted by an unhelpful West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
The World Twenty20 provided further incentive to have another go. Like his own tournament, it immediately found the sweet spot. Wisden called it “a dream” and an “outrageous success”.
The possibilities were obvious, not least, but not only, to Stanford.
He flew to Johannesburg before the final with a formidable entourage of his directors to try to get ICC approval for a four-way series.
When that was knocked back after a confrontational meeting with now sacked ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, he put a challenge on the table for a one-off, winner-take-all match between a West Indies 20/20 team and the ICC winners in Antigua, this time for US$10 million.
Again, the response was negative.
India, the first Twenty20 world champions, wouldn’t bite. Fully aware of the spinoffs from their team’s triumph among cricket’s most passionate public, they were soon setting up tournaments of their own under the new format.
The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was the first off the block, a private venture, enticing mainly retired foreign stars with fees they could not refuse and placing them in teams alongside up-and-coming Indians.
Embarrassingly upstaged, the official Board of Control for India (BCCI) countered with a competition of its own, the IPL, at the same time outlawing the ICL and all who joined it and using its clout to get the ICC to do the same.
Its all-star cast included all the top Indian players and 40 of the most identifiable internationals on contracts that dwarfed the ICL’s. Fourteen present or former Test captains were signed up.
Sony bought television rights for a staggering US$1 billion for 10 years, a telling long-term endorsement. Bollywood film stars and big-time sponsors, ever conscious of associating with the nation’s zealous worship of cricket and cricketers, fell over themselves to purchase franchises and bid for team members at public auction. Two fetched over US$1 million, none less than US$200,000.
Stanford felt betrayed, first by the ICC, then by the BCCI, and threw down the gauntlet.
“The Indian board said no (to his US$10 million challenge) because it would be endorsing a privately funded programme and look what they’ve done, they have set up their own privately funded programme, the IPL,” he said. “This is all about business, and it’s big time business.”
He finally found himself a powerful ally in the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) with whom he, along with the WICB, signed a memorandum of understanding last week to create two Stanford-funded international Twenty20 competitions.
One is for a five-match, US$100 million series over five years between the Stanford West Indies Superstars team and England, all reportedly at the Stanford ground in Antigua.
The other is for a quadrangular tournament in England, at Lord’s, annually from September 2009, involving England, Stanford West Indies and two international teams invited by the ECB, for US$100 million prize money.
Because of their simultaneous county contracts, only one English player joined the IPL although several are openly keen to whenever possible. The ECB hopes the deal with Stanford helps retain them under its umbrella.
The WICB was kept on board with the prospect of earning television revenue along with US$5 million every time the Stanford team beat England in one of the US$20 million matches and an unspecified amount when England win.
There were also hints of setting up an England Premier League (EPL), financed by Stanford and other private investors, a copy of but a rival to the Indian model.
“The ECB realise they’re at a crossroads,” Stanford told the Times newspaper. “They either let the Indians do it or they step up and get a game plan. You want something that will have lasting value for everybody.
“It’s inevitable that the ECB will create a Twenty20 league, it’s inevitable that it will involve the private sector and it’s inevitable that the game will evolve,” he added.
He said he had spoken to potential European and American investors for a league to be run by ECB with television revenue to be split.
Whether it was a legitimate assessment or just plain pique at India’s initial rejection of his US$10 million showdown match, Stanford predicted that the future direction of Twenty20 would come from England since “the organisation is better, the management is better, the structure is better.
“With the IPL, when the sizzle and the sparkle has gone away, what’s left?” he asked rhetorically. “The ECB will have to look at keeping that going after the first few years.”
Into its third week, there are no signs of the sizzle and sparkle going away from the IPL.
But there are no signs of Stanford backing away from his goal either.
