Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins is playing in the IPL playoffs (Photo by NOAH SEELAM/AFP via … [+]
The T20 World Cup, cricket’s biggest event this year and partially hosted by the U.S, is almost underway but a slew of top players are currently focused on winning domestic franchise silverware in India to underline the sport’s congestion.
Completely overshadowed, the T20 World Cup feels all rather subdued. There has been little talk or discussion over the upcoming tournament, which has expanded to 20 teams.
With little plot lines to stew over, given international cricket for many of the top teams has been on hiatus for the last two months due to the IPL, the World Cup’s focus has been on cricket’s investment into the U.S. The newly constructed ground in New York – costing around $30 million, as I reported recently – has grabbed much of the headlines.
The T20 World Cup starts in less than a fortnight with cricket’s oldest rivalry between the U.S. and Canada, but the sport is currently dominated by the finishing stages of the Indian Premier League.
The IPL is clearly the most lucrative cricket tournament in the world and even dwarfs World Cups given its astronomical television rights deals worth billions. It is little wonder that the sport’s best players are lured on hefty pay deals often far greater than their national teams can offer.
Quick bowler Mitchell Starc is earning a record $3 million in this season’s IPL in an eye-watering figure that is higher than his contract with Australia. Starc is one of five players who won’t play in Australia’s T20 World Cup warm-up matches against Namibia and West Indies due to his IPL commitments.
Mitchell Starc is currently playing in the IPL (Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty Images)
Travis Head, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green are others part of the IPL’s playoffs and they will link up with Australia’s squad in Barbados ahead of their opening match against Oman on June 5. Australia, the 2021 champions and the tournament favorites behind India, will be entirely based in the Caribbean and won’t be playing in the U.S.
Apart from Green, the other four players are locks for the starting XI meaning Australia will feature a second-string team in their warm-up matches. It is a similar story for other teams heavily affected by the IPL, including West Indies who have seven players unavailable for the practice matches.
Powerhouses and T20 World Cup favorites India will play their only practice match against Bangladesh in New York on June 1 – the same day as the tournament’s opening fixture.
India are the favorites for the T20 World Cup (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Players will argue that the IPL is serving as preparation for the T20 World Cup given there is no bigger stage than the cauldron of a tournament that is fanatically followed in the cricket-mad country. The T20 World Cup will likely feel rather staid in comparison to the bedlam experienced in the terraces of the IPL matches.
But with all the focus currently on the IPL, which doesn’t finish until the final on May 26, the build-up for the T20 World Cup does feel diminished. There just isn’t the anticipation and excitement one would expect for one of the marquee events in the sport.
It’s due to the suffocating cricket calendar, which doesn’t allow any time to breathe and soak it all in. Top players will arrive from the IPL and, bang, the T20 World Cup will have lift off and probably catch a lot of people – even those in established cricket countries – off guard.
Cricket’s schedule is brimming to capacity, which is likely to get even worse as new T20 franchise leagues appear and existing ones expand.
The mishmash of cricket’s calendar is getting too confusing for most fans to properly digest as one event rolls into another.
In a rare silver lining, this cricket buffet is hoped to fuel momentum for the second season of America’s Major League Cricket, which starts just days after the T20 World Cup final on June 29.
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup trophy is displayed at Broward Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida (Photo by … [+]
But don’t get used to MLC being a permanent fixture in America’s sports landcape in July with the tournament’s eventual plan, as I reported recently, to cement a place on the calendar from mid-June to mid-July.
That’s due to, you probably guessed it, avoiding potential clashes with other cricket leagues. The Hundred, a polarizing white-ball competition in the U.K, is played in late July and has caused tension for England’s hierarchy with some of its players keen on playing in MLC.
The Hundred’s future is under a cloud, which could open up valuable space for MLC, but that’s fanciful becomes something else will inevitably take its place.
Weary fans will be too exhausted to care.