Here’s an unusual boxing match between two opposing forces.
Identity
Identities are being lost in franchise cricket. Every team has to be gifted a nickname that obliterates any sense of its origin.
Here are some names: Brave, Diamonds, Fire, Invincibles, Originals, Phoenix, Rockets, Spirit, Stars, Storm, Superchargers, Thunder, Vipers.
Can you distinguish them? Yes, some were in the KSL That died a sad death after a short life. The rest are in the Hundred. But even the sides that reveal where they come from (Birmingham Phoenix, Manchester Originals, London Spirit) now lose their first name as if it’s of no importance. Since hardly anyone in the squad hails from that city, who cares? Only the people who actually come from there, who value its identity. One lonely voice dared to complain about the use of ‘Manchester’. Why not Lancashire?’ That voice will be silenced under the demented screamings of PA announcers every ‘set’ of five balls.
Once we move abroad, identities become much harder to distinguish. In the WBBL it’s Strikers, Heat, Hurricanes, Renegades, Stars, Scorchers, Sixers and Thunder, so the best of luck with them. It doesn’t help when two nations share the same name. Where does Thunder thunder? Where do Stars shine?
It doesn’t matter: the players will all be gone and forgotten inside a few weeks.
Commentators rarely mention where players come from, unless they are overseas stars. And why do they come to England to play? For the money.
Why have so many retired from international cricket, while continuing to play franchise cricket`? For the money.
Your keen 4-year-old supporter will happily wave her 4-card, whether the batter is from her team or the opposition. That’s fine. But when it’s a 44-year-old, we have to wonder whether it makes any difference who’s doing what.
Franchise cricket muddies the waters. Teams alter radically every year. Player A was worth £31k last year; this year she is lucky to be picked up in the final draft by another franchise for a couple of pounds. Did Tammy Beaumont promise to learn fifty more Welsh words after her wonderful hundred for Fire?
Nat Sciver-Brunt used to captain Surrey at the Oval. She now appears there as the opposing captain. Does anyone remember that or care?
Priorities
The Background
The ICC has just twelve full members and 96 associates. That former figure is a disgrace, though the weight of responsibility falls on the MCC which failed miserably to ensure cricket became a truly world game.
Within the women’s branch, there are ten nations competing in the ICC Women’s Championship 2022-25. The batting order: India, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, West Indies, South Africa and Ireland.
For understandable reasons there are wide gaps set between them, but one effect is to make leading players even more willing to forsake this top-level tournament for well paid contracts in month-long franchises.
What is the ICC’s official view? Is it happy for international cricket to be removed to the backwaters of the game? Has it lost its battle with the India multi-billionaires who can treat
cricket as their plaything?
What good does it do individual nations to have foreigners (sorry, I mean ‘overseas players’) invading their shores to pick up useful money?
One quote from this afternoon: ’The South Africans are having a great day’. But why are they not playing in their homeland, helping to advance its prospects?
And why have so many players in the Hundred retired from international cricket, while perfectly happy to go on in the franchise sector? Dané van Niekerk, Deandra Dottin and Lizelle Lee
come to mind. If they are fit enough to play The Hundred, why not for their nation? But then, we might query the ‘fit enough’ statement in the odd case or two.
Then we come to the vexed question of drafts. How much is she worth? Some players who were awarded the top whack of £31,250 have clearly failed to deserve their exclusive ranking. Team spirit has to survive that. Some players are living on past reputations: are those the priorities the ICC wishes to support?
Tentative Conclusions
Franchise cricket has caught the imagination of people to whom the game had become the rarest of species. Crowds are vast.
But during the most recent Ashes series cricket grounds have been packed too, so there is hope at the end of a barely lit tunnel.
The Judges’ Verdict – split decision.
