It might well be the Lockdown Blues. Or the Isolation Syndrome.
Maybe administrators around the world are merely taking a leaf out of US President Donald Trump’s book and being “sarcastic.” But desperate times have given rise to desperate ideas, some of which we might have to live with if cricket as we know it is to live on.
The Big Three — India, England and Australia — need one another to survive. Cricket Australia has calculated that if India’s tour slated for October is called off, they stand to lose A$300 million. In anticipation, the Chief Executive has already asked his staff to take pay cuts up to 80%.
Ideas being discussed involve playing the India series (if the Australian government allows) at a single venue, a “quarantine hub”, and play matches to an empty stadium.
Should that fall through, and with television needing live action, there is a proposal to play a series of matches between the national team and the ‘A’ team. The hope is that it will be fiercely competitive, with those outside the main team using the opportunity to prove themselves. It will be “gripping”, says former player Simon Katich.
It is an idea England’s cricket board is toying with too. England’s focus for the moment is the new tournament, the Hundred, which the board hopes will bring in much-needed money. Currently the Hundred is to England what the IPL is to India — a cash cow that is in danger of being put out to pasture. It is why neither tournament has been officially called off yet; there are few folks more optimistic than those in danger of losing millions.
England believes they could lose “in excess of £300 million” if no cricket is played this year. They are looking at playing in “bio-secure” environments — no audience, players staying at hotels attached to the stadium, and quarantine being the key — but nothing is slated to happen before July 1. The idea is to use the “minimum number of grounds for our desired international schedule,” according to the chief executive.
“After international cricket,” former England captain Michael Vaughan has said, “the Hundred is the most important aspect of the game.” Cricket officials around the world have the confidence of knowing that whatever decision they make — good, bad, indifferent — there will always be some prominent player to support it.
As reported in this newspaper, India are relatively safe, with the board not needing to make cuts even if no cricket is played the rest of the year. But even here, the ripple effects of lack of international cricket and home series will be felt by the average domestic cricketer.
“Even in the worst-case scenario, the BCCI will try and protect the staff and cricketing fraternity, and do its best to minimise the impact on our cricketers and administrative staff,” the BCCI treasurer has said, and that must come as a relief.
Cricket boards in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies, South Africa and Bangladesh are on the brink of bankruptcy; at the moment the International Cricket Council has no plan for them, or for the non-Test playing countries.
Hence the importance of the World T20 (to be held in Australia later this year, but likely to be postponed to February next) and other ICC tournaments which bring in money.
All of which is why we might have to bite our tongues and accept what comes our way by way of domestic and international cricket once the governments give permission.
Playing to an empty stadium might be anathema to the sports fan, maybe sport itself, but we might have to reconcile ourselves to that. Playing four Tests at a single venue might not be a great idea, but it is both acknowledgement that television is what sport is for, and that the sports ecosystem goes beyond the players and coaches.
Hundreds of thousand make their living off cricket — officials, employees of various associations, players at the lower end of the scale, umpires, groundsmen, journalists, caterers and other important professionals at the venues of matches, radio and online commentators, airlines operators, taxi drivers at the cities where matches are played, hotel owners, hotel employees and others all gain by the multiplier effect.
In times like these, sport has to be seen as a business that feeds families, that puts money in the pockets of those who depend on it.
I wish we didn’t have to play in empty stadiums, I wish we didn’t have four successive Test matches in a series at the same venue, I wish “bio-security” weren’t an issue.
But we need to look seriously at all the desperate ideas, which even a year ago we would have laughed off. It is better to have some cricket rather than none at all, and if compromises have to be made, so be it.
