Too many cricket leagues all around? The ICC to tighten approval

Ever since the Indian Premier League (IPL) changed the definition of cricket, boards from around the world have come up with their own Twenty20 formats to make the most out of the commercial gains. Recently, a T10 format of the game has also emerged and has become popular right from the word go.

The emergence of so many leagues has made the International Cricket Council (ICC) ponder over the threat to fixtures of international cricket. It has been learned that cricket’s world body will discuss means to tighten up how short formats are sanctioned in the future. The body will meet in Singapore on October 20 and the issue will be raised there.

“One of the things we will be talking about in our meeting next week is around regulations and sanctioning of events and also the release of players (for leagues),” ICC’s General Manager Cricket Geoff Allardice was quoted as saying in The News International.

“So you look at all of the documentation and the ownership structures and how the league is going to be funded and all these types of things and then you provide approval.”

Won’t be easy for any promoter hereafter

He said things will not be too easy for “any promoter to come in”, adding that for any tournament to start in the future, the support of the home country and the ICC will be required.

“I think perhaps the hurdles to jump for a promoter to put on a T20 league are going to be a bit higher and that the vetting process by both the host country and by the ICC would be enhanced.”

Allardice, however, said that the players were not ignoring Test cricket. He said cricketers want to play the longer format while some of the players who prefer to play in the leagues are not regular Test cricketers at the time of making their decisions.

There have been leagues that came under scrutiny. The Masters Cricket League which involved retired and semi-retired players in the United Arab Emirates hit a wall after its first and only edition in 2016 as the participating players received no pay.

Similarly, the T10 League, the second edition of which received the ICC’s sanction recently, also came under allegations of unfair activities and the Pakistan Cricket Board raised reservations over it.

For more news and developments, stay tuned on CricTracker.com.