Cricket News: Glenn Maxwell's warning to the Big Bash League
Australian cricketer Glenn Maxwell is known to be a reasonably candid character, so it should come as a bit of surprise that, in a recent podcast appearance, he was frank about how league cricket was growing around the world – and why the Australian Big Bash League (BBL) needs to be keeping an eye over its shoulder
Image credit: PA Images Glenn Maxwell issues dire Big Bash League warning amid explosion of international T20 leagues"If the BBL is not careful, it could get overrun by the amount of cricket that's going on around the world and it's going to be hard to compete with because the IPL teams are just so powerful," he told the Vic State Cricket podcast.
He further said that Cricket Australia's next big priority should be to ensure young players in the domestic system are financially taken care of, lest they be lured away by the prospect of becoming regular franchise cricketers.
"I think the next step is ensuring that our local players are taken care of because we will see these leagues take over at some stage."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Glenn Maxwell said, "we won't be able to afford Suryakumar Yadav in the Big Bash League even with all the money which is there in our cap. We've to sack everyone (laughs)". (To Grade Cricketer).</p>— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) <a href="https://twitter.com/mufaddal_vohra/status/1595290472922353664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
"We are going to see the IPL teams, who have got their hands in different competitions around the world; we are going to see them take over."
"It could end up being a bit like (LIV) Golf – I could see it sort of heading that way."
Now, the LIV Golf example is a bit extreme – the latter is a breakaway league bankrolled by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, whose primary purpose is to be a part of the sports washing propaganda by the state.
By contrast, the expansion of IPL team owners into other leagues is down to the oldest of business maxims – profit. However, that doesn't mean the danger it poses isn't real.
In the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), three of the six teams are owned by IPL owners. The same is true for the International League T20 (ILT20), the UAE-based league that will get underway in January 2023.
It is even more extreme in the SA20, also set to get underway in January 2023 – IPL teams own all six teams.
It could lead to a situation wherein a select few will have established an oligarchy over the riches of the franchise leagues – and thus be in an excellent position to call their shots.
It's not like there haven't been warning signs of this already. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore has spoken on the record about wanting to sign players on year-long contracts to have them play across leagues in teams owned by the KKR group.
In some ways, it is already happening – Andre Russell and Sunil Narine play for both KKR and the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, the ILT20 team owned by KKR.
Narine is also part of the Trinbago Knight Riders, who, as you probably guessed, are the CPL team owned by the KKR group.
Maxwell is therefore correct – these franchise owners' financial clout is genuine, and the BBL needs to watch its back.
Will the powers of these owners be checked by those currently meant to safeguard the game's future, especially since even the latter group is intent on squeezing every dollar of revenue out of the game? That remains to be seen.