The Indian Premier League (IPL) has became a fixture in the international cricket calendar and the sixth edition of the IPL got under way yesterday. This makes it an appropriate time to consider the club verses country debate but from a cricketing angle. This has already began with Eoin Morgan being at the center of this debate, many people believe that he should be with his county Middlsex this week playing in sub zero conditions in a pre-season friendly against Kent. The ECB have made it clear that they prefer their test players in England preparing for the summer's cricket rather than in Indian playing in a twenty twenty competition. Lets be honest last summers KP debacle was all because he was making sure he could play in future IPL tournaments but at the same time not risk losing his England place.
This debate can easily be solved by the ICC and respective national cricket boards by carefully managing the international and domestic cricket calendar. This country is 100% guilty of playing too much cricket both internationally and domestic. Players should be given the opportunity to play in lucrative tournaments like the IPL where they can get earn some money and help increase the global image of the game. In today's blog I'm going to begin to solve this debate by suggesting a couple of changes to both the domestic and international calendar 's that will settle the issue if players like Morgan and KP should be playing in the IPL.
The first change I would make is I would have distinct blocks during the calendar when international cricket is played. The first is the international season for fixtures played in England. England needs it's own distinct period because we are the only country that plays cricket in what we call summer May-September. All international cricket played in England needs to fit into these two distinct windows end of May and June then the second window through August and September. In these two periods you play seven test matches and a triangular one day series against the two touring nations. There is no need to fly India or Australia over just to play one cricket it has very little meaning.
The reason I have left July free is so our domestic twenty twenty competition can take place and by having England players available we increase the standard of competition and hopefully help counties get bigger crowds to the games. There is no reason to play test cricket in England prior to the last week of May because the chances of getting a completed test are very slim and it free's time up in the schedule. During this time the first two rounds of county championship cricket can take places sufficiently preparing England players for test cricket. I would also make dramatic changes to the championship structure for many years I have felt a 16 game schedule is far too much. It gives players little time to train or develop their tactical awareness and a coaches job is more like a team bus driver. I would adapt the championship to be a three tier championship each division having 6 teams in who everyone plays home and away making 10 fixtures a season. This makes every single game competitive and important for each county to win their division, which should not only help the country produce better and more tactically aware cricketers but help counties sell tickets as each game actually matters.
That sort of touches upon the domestic changes to help the burden on the cricketing calendar, I could go on for ever and discuss each change in more detail but I'm not sure I have the time to write it all down. With the international calendar I would make another couple of windows. First of all October would be a free month where no cricket is played unless its a world cup year and the extra time is needed. All international cricket needs to be played within these two windows first one November through to 2 weeks into January this allows home series in the sub continent to be played and Australia and South Africa. It also allows traditions such as boxing day and new years test matches to remain. Then there is the second window which is late February and all of March for countries who might not have been able to play home tests in the previous window like New Zealand and West Indies to schedule in home series.
This then leaves the IPL to be played in the month of April and that month only. I currently believe the IPL has too many fixtures and people loose interest however I for one minute do not think they will ever reduce the number of games played because of income reasons. Therefore I suggest the IPL plays its games much more rapidly. It's twenty twenty cricket teams do not need a week to rest between fixtures they could even play two nights in a row. In my eyes it should look something like an NBA schedule where a team plays 3-4 times week. This would allow all the world's best players to play in the IPL without creating conflict between them and their country.
I know like most of you this all looks well and good on paper but in the real world would never happen. There are too many nations that need to agree on playing cricket at certain times and all would fear it has a negative financial impact on them. This is where I would challenge them every change I have made I have done it with the idea that it would have a positive financial impact either through increasing competition or given the calendar more structure so interest is not lost. I will demonstrate this further in a future blog where I discuss international cricket and having a test match league but for now enjoy the IPL.
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