create a niche in t20 market
Tim Wigmore discusses how the world’s T20 leagues can become more commercially viable after a disappointing CPL
In Florida last weekend, I witnessed my first taste of competitive cricket on American soil. The Caribbean Premier League staged four matches at Lauderhill cricket ground over Saturday and Sunday.
The initiative was welcome. In a globalised world, the notion that ‘Americans don’t do cricket’ is absurd. There are 15 million cricket fans in the US, according to the ICC – and global tournaments are watched by more people in America than anywhere else in the world outside Asia. The ICC believe that around 200,000 regularly play cricket in the USA.
Lauderhill remains the only internationally accredited ground in the country: it originally hoped that it would host matches in the 2007 World Cup, although that never materialised. Still, it has staged a reasonable amount of high-quality cricket in recent years: 20,000 turned up for an India-West Indies Twenty20 international at the ground last year, paying between $75 and $250 each.
The second season of CPL matches at Lauderhill was rather less of a triumph. The CPL’s biggest draw – both in terms of cricket and the demography of South Florida – are the Tribago Knight Riders, but they were absent over the weekend, because they were loathed to lose one of their home matches.
Instead there was the bizarre spectacle of both days featuring the same games at the same time: Guyana Amazon Warriors played the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at 11am on Saturday and then at the same time on Sunday; Barbados Tridents met Jamaica Tallawahs at 3pm on Sunday and then at the identical time a day later. It was like deja vu all over again.
Add in the sweltering heat, the basic logistical problems – fans could not get from the East Stand, where there were only a couple of food outlets, to the West stand, where there were plenty – and the exorbitant prices – $65 for a day, topped up by an eye-watering $25 parking fee – and the underwhelming sense was inescapable. Perhaps little wonder that the crowds were disappointing: a respectable 5,200 on the opening day and then a poor 1,500 on the second. The figures were significantly worse than last year, when the matches were played under floodlights – there were no lights this year, to save costs – and Trinidad & Tobago’s team were present. So this was not expansionism at its best.
Yet it’s still probably a shape of cricket’s future. This is not just about cricket in the US – though it’s clear that the ICC are more committed to it than ever before. Really this is about the future of domestic T20 cricket.
The T20 calendar has never been more saturated: this year only June, the month of the Champions Trophy, will lack a major league unfolding. But – besides the well-established IPL and Big Bash – how can these leagues stand out, remain relevant and actually generate cash, rather than the loss-making that is, so far, the norm?
Perhaps the most compelling answer is for these leagues to extend beyond their national boundaries. The Caribbean Premier League, which has teams from six different nations or territories, is ideally placed to do just that. Given the small West Indies market, of under six million people, the league needs to be followed elsewhere in the world if it is to be self-sustainable.
It has made significant strides in its reach abroad, but nothing entices followers like being able to see a team that represents them. Hence the CPL’s desire to eventually – 2020 is probably the earliest conceivable year – gain teams in America (exactly where is unclear, given that the demography in Lauderhill is not ideally suited to a team and there are a dearth of suitable stadiums elsewhere) and Canada, where Toronto already has both the facilities and the fans. It would then cease to be the Caribbean Premier League and instead become an Americas League.
Perhaps other T20 leagues could do the same – thereby pooling resources and players, rather than undermining each other. The Pakistan Super League, say, could merge with the Bangladesh Premier League and even include teams from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka: perhaps four each from Pakistan and Bangladesh, and two each from the other two nations. A couple of teams from New Zealand could join the Big Bash. A team from Zimbabwe could join the new South African league. And a team apiece from Ireland and Scotland could join the new English T20 league.
Such competitions, extending beyond cricketing borders, would be elevated, as they need to be to carve out a niche in the shadow of the IPL. If such mergers happened, the overall T20 calendar could be streamlined, providing fans and players with a break between leagues, rather than each blurring into the next. Such a structure would also make the reintroduction of the Champions League easier: before, the competition was fatally undermined by so many players being able to play for multiple teams.
All of this will require vision and imagination. But those outside cricket’s wealthiest nations will need to be innovative if their T20 leagues are to advance from being loss-makers to being economically viable.