NEW DELHI: The last 48 months have seen a rampant rise in cricket leagues around the world. The organisers, opting for a franchise-based model, have started experimenting with different formats now. These competitions are not just restricted to T20s anymore as plenty of T10 leagues have mushroomed recently and it’s not a surprise that the United States has emerged as a leading marketplace for potential investors/organisers.
The region is still finding its feet to build a cricket ecosystem but two successful seasons of Major League Cricket (MLC) and a T20 World Cup, even if unsuccessful, is attracting a lot of interest.There is the American Premier League (APL) which has been in the news for a lot of administrative mess and now is the turn of the National Cricket League (NCL).
Both APL and NCL are sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), feature international cricketers but have raised a lot of concerns over player regulations and on-field standards. With NCL, there is no clarity yet on the financial model of the T10 league which features plenty of former international cricketers and some active players too.
Very recently, the global cricket body’s outgoing Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) head Alex Marshall had issued a stern warning on “badly-run” franchise leagues, and emphasised on the need to be extra careful with the “lower-level” ones.
“I am confident that the cricket you watch is safe and clean. But I am also absolutely sure that corruptors are constantly looking for a route into the game, particularly in badly-run lower-level franchise leagues. The threat to the game is corruptors won’t go away while there is always money to be made and they will look for weakness in the system to get in,” Marshall had said in an interview with ESPNCricinfo.
How ICC sanctions leagues
Before every league sees participation from active and ex international cricketers, it needs to get sanctioned by the ICC. There is a comprehensive document on the ICC website which states the various minimum requirements for a league to be sanctioned. There is a word of caution in Appendix 2 which highlights how T20 leagues are at a risk.
“Recent experiences have demonstrated that there are various ways in which the integrity of the game can be compromised, including, without limitation, through the infiltration into the sport of unscrupulous persons intent upon engaging in corruption and/or doping, and that Domestic Events taking the form of T20 Leagues (namely the premier Twenty20 league authorized by and played under the auspices of that National Cricket Federation) appear to be at greater risk of such attack than other forms of the game,” reads the document.
There are different ICC teams which offer their inputs before a league is sanctioned and an active role is played by the cricket operations, legal and anti-corruption wings. It is understood that Committee Secretary Clive Hitchcock oversees the entire process and goes through the eligibility criteria and other minimum requirements.
The expansion of cricket into newer markets will continue but it’s time the ICC takes note of developments in APL, NCL and ensure there are stricter checks and balances in place.