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FORMER West Indies opener and former TT Cricket Board CEO Suruj Ragoonath said Cricket West Indies (CWI) and cricket boards around the world will have a “herculean task” to keep players motivated and willing to represent their respective teams because of the win. The Indian Premier League (IPL), which has become richer after a new deal.
The IPL is now looking for an official two-and-a-half month window in the calendar so that all the top players are able to compete in their tournament.
Ragoonath believes that the longest format of the game is under threat.
The IPL announced a deal on Tuesday with Disney Star and Viacom 18 worth over $6 billion over a five-year period from 2023 to 2027.
The deal is 2.96 times higher than the previous IPL rights deal from 2018 to 2022, which was worth $2.55 billion.
Before the latest deal, IPL players were already among the highest paid athletes in the world.
The CWI has had its challenges keeping players interested in representing the West Indies. Often, West Indians are among the top picks in franchise cricket drafts around the world and some have picked these leagues ahead of West Indies in the past.
West Indies were well represented in IPL 2022, which concluded at the end of May with 17 players involved.
The West Indians selected in the IPL 2022 auction were Dwayne Bravo, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder, Shimron Hetmyer, Romario Shepherd, Odean Smith, Rovman Powell, Dominic Drakes, Alzarri Joseph, Sherfane Rutherford, Fabian Allen, Obed Le Mcwis and Kylein. The presidents.
They joined Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell who were retained by their respective franchises.
The total price paid to West Indies players was $10.855 million.
Russell ($1.6M), Pooran ($1.433M), Holder ($1.166M), Hetmyer ($1.133M) and Shepherd ($1.033M) were all signed for over a million.
Ragoonath said the CWI has a tough task to keep their players passionate about representing the West Indies.
“It’s a big challenge for the Cricket Board of West Indies (CWI), any board for that matter, because you can’t afford that kind of money.”
Ragoonath said players can opt for exclusive cricket instead of country.
“You shouldn’t blame the players for the choice because they have a limited term in terms of their careers and they want to choose where they will get the maximum return on their skills.”
The IPL, which lasted over two months this year, is expected to be contested for two-and-a-half months from the 2024 edition as more matches are being planned.
The long IPL could affect the already packed international cricket calendar as players may have to choose between the IPL and representing their nation or region.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah said the BCCI is “committed” to international cricket.
Ragoonath said that CWI should try to increase the pool of players as players will be lost in exclusive cricket.
He added that cricket is being developed in the US and players will also be withdrawn from those leagues.
Test cricket has declined in popularity and Ragoonath said that the longest form of the game may no longer exist in the coming years.
“We are now risking the extinction of the longer format, four-day cricket and so on. The players who would eventually play long format cricket would be players who simply cannot get T20 contracts and therefore they will be the smaller (skilled) players, therefore international competition (would be more difficult ). We would become even worse as a competitor than we are now and we are extremely poor at the moment.”
A two-match Test series between West Indies and Bangladesh takes place in Antigua on Thursday.
Ragoonath said: “Given the financial aspect of the IPL and what it is earning not only as a product but what the players are earning by playing the players will continue to prioritize the IPL.”
He said players can only play IPL and not even participate in other franchise tournaments.
