Cricket

[Utd heap]

The only one who can stop them is Australia in a knockout match.

There's loads of teams capable of beating them in a KO game, that's tournaments for you.

But they will rightly be huge favs.

Feels like we are truly seeing the IPL depth coming through now.

 

[IRN-BRUno]

The sales of The Hundred franchises, mostly to Indian owners of IPL sides, is pretty depressing but symbolic of the way the sports heading.

It's just the latest in a number of other nations domestic teams now being owned by, again, mostly Indian owners of IPL franchises. It's getting like the Man City multi-ownership group but even more dominant as there's so few cricket nations so it's more encompassing and has more of a dominating and controling impact.

It's not great at all that now a select number of owners are owning so many teams around the world. It's bad enough with the franchise clubs in relatively new competitions - but at least they were always pretty much a corporate, money driven idea anyway and quite new teams.

But with traditional county teams like Hampshire County Cricket Club already owned by Indian IPL owners as well - who also own teams in South Africa, Dubai and USA - you get the feeling it won't be long before most / all of the county championship teams will join The Hundred teams in being owned by the owners of IPL franchises (and the same for most other nations and their domestic sides).

Yeah, it feels as though the sport is heading down a dangerous road. It's only a matter of time before players are contracted to one 'group' and they'll have control of what tournaments that player features in. And before you know it they'll be asked to miss international fixtures to prepare/rest or retire early so they can concentrate on the franchise stuff.

The governing bodies need to be careful how they handle these situations but it's not an easy position for them to be fair. The ECB handing out multi-year contracts is a positive move I think but there's a massive issue at the moment about them allowing players to skip Championship games to play in the IPL but those picked up by PSL sides are being told they either give up their red-ball deals or they can't go.