Twenty20, global disembedding, and the rise of the ‘portfolio player’

Abstract

In international cricket it has long been the case that the pinnacle of a player's career is representing his country in Test matches against other national sides. However, there are signs that this perception is changing and it is quite possible that in the near future (if not already) players will put their Twenty20 careers ahead of their Test careers, and in so doing undermine the status of cricket's hitherto most prestigious contests. Recently, West Indies captain Chris Gayle declared that he wouldn't be unhappy if Test cricket was replaced by Twenty20, a statement that caused widespread consternation throughout the Test-playing world. In the past few years cricket has witnessed the emergence the ‘freelance player’, leading Test match players such as Shane Bond of New Zealand, and Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Tait, and Brett Lee of Australia who have retired early from Tests in order to ward off injury and prolong their earnings potential in the IPL (Indian Premier League). Also, ‘portfolio’ cricketers have emerged, for example West Indian Kieron Pollard who has Twenty20 contracts in Australia, England, the IPL, and Trinidad. The financial rewards from playing in the IPL and other Twenty20 tournaments are such that a growing number of players believe that they no longer need to pursue a conventional career path: Twenty20 now represents an alternative career structure. The paper will consider the implications of this player-driven development for the future of other forms of the game.

Notes

¹ Brydon Coverdale, ‘Melbourne and Sydney given two T20 teams each’, Cricinfo, 8 Feb. 2011, http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/499901.html See also English, this volume.

² See Gupta, ‘India: The Epicentre’, and also in this volume.

³ Collier, ‘Foreword’, 5.

⁴ ECB, Grounds to Play, 24.

⁵ ECB's ‘One Game’ website, http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/one-game/

⁶ http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/one-game/one-game-pledge/

⁷ http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/one-game/one-game-pledge/

⁸ http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/one-game/one-game-pledge/

⁹ Cricket Australia, From Backyard to Baggy Green.

¹⁰ Cricket Australia, From Backyard to Baggy Green, 17.

¹¹ ECB webpage blurb, http://www.ecb.co.uk/the-great-exhibition/the-great-exhibition-opens,304816,EN.html

¹² In this section I draw upon arguments made in Rumford and Wagg, Cricket and Globalization.

¹³ http://www.ecb.co.uk/the-great-exhibition/

¹⁴ http://www.ecb.co.uk/the-great-exhibition/

¹⁵ New Zealand Cricket, Pushing Beyond Boundaries, p.19

¹⁶ With the exception of the ECB document they were published prior to the advent of the IPL. ‘Grounds to Play’ attempts to embed domestic Twenty20 and accords it the role of ‘cash cow’, providing ‘the commercial income for Counties to sustain the County Championship programme’: ECB, Grounds to Play, 18.

¹⁷ West Indies Cricket Board, ‘Chairman's report for the year ended September 30th 2009’, http://www.windiescricket.com/sites/westindies/files/documents/WICB_Presidents_Report_2010.pdf

¹⁸ ECB, Grounds to Play, p.17

¹⁹ ECB, Grounds to Play, 31.

²⁰ ECB, Planning for Long-Term Success, 6.

²¹ See for example, Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity; Holton, Making Globalization; Eade, Living the Global City; Beck, The Reinvention of Politics.

²² Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 21.

²³ Holton, Making Globalization, 32.

²⁴ ‘Teams spend big to overhaul their rosters’, Cricinfo, 8 Jan. 2011, http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league-2011/content/story/495956.html

²⁵ Osman Samiuddin, ‘IPL yet to respond on Pakistan participation – PCB’, Cricinfo, 25 Dec. 2010, http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league-2011/content/story/494038.html

²⁶ R. Blakely, ‘India takes cricket to China as old boundaries are hit for six’, The Times, 2 April 2008, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article3663061.ece

²⁷ Beck, The Reinvention of Politics, 95.

²⁸ ‘Bravo, Pollard won't start a trend – T&T selector’, Cricinfo, 24 Sept. 2010, http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/story/478596.html

²⁹ ‘Pollard is not a cricketer: Mike Holding’, CricBuzz, 24 May 2010, http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/26495/pollard-is-not-a-cricketer-mike-holding

³⁰ Anna Kessel, ‘Chris Gayle warns Andrew Strauss to “stay out of his business” over late IPL return’, The Guardian, 12 May 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/12/chris-gayle-andrew-strauss-cricket

³¹ Warner's Twenty20 record is exceptional. At the time of writing he has played 92 matches and has scored 2,512 runs at an average of 29. His strike rate is very high, standing at 143 (runs per hundred balls). This strike rate (a key measure of a Twenty20 players' effectiveness) is significantly higher than that of most other top players (e.g. Eoin Morgan's rate is 130, Kevin Pietersen's is 139, Ryan ten Doeschate's is 130). Only Kieron Pollard's strike rate is significantly higher, standing at 170.

³² Beck, The Reinvention of Politics, 95.

³³ ‘Hampshire agree marketing deal with Rajasthan Royals’, BBC News online, 8 Feb. 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/hampshire/8505141.stm