New Delhi: Agents discourage England cricketers from playing in the English County Championship and strict measures like the one BCCI has taken to prioritise its domestic game should be followed by the England and Wales Cricket Board, says Lancashire’s CEO Daniel Gidney.
While the BCCI has directed all its contracted players, with the exception of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah to play in the recent Duleep Trophy when not on national duty, other cricket boards including the ECB is yet to enforce a policy to prioritise domestic cricket.
The BCCI omitted Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from its annual retainership list for skipping domestic events for the Indian Premier League, a move that got wide support from other cricket administrators.
“Imagine a governing body (BCCI) actually saying that out loud … That was fantastic prioritising,” Gidney told British publication The Guardian.
Gidney feels the advent of agents threaten the future of England’s domestic cricket as players are lured towards lucrative T20 franchise leagues over traditional multi-day competitions.
“We need to have more of an open conversation. Coaches get blamed, administrators get blamed, but if you want to blame anybody, blame agents,” Gidney said on the sidelines of a match between Lancashire and Somerset at Old Trafford.
“I think the game as a whole needs to come together to find a way to support the championship. England players don’t have to play in the championship, agents don’t care about the championship,” he added.
Participation cap
Greater prize money would help restore the balance, Gidney said, as he called for putting a limit to participation in franchise leagues.
“More prize money would help and I think we need to find a way of paying four or five players a lot more money. Instead of GBP 80,000-90,000 being the top domestic salary, we need to find a way of paying GBP 200k … and saying part of that deal is that you don’t play franchise cricket.”
“They have a career – I’m not begrudging their ability to earn money – but the balance has tipped … When the bottom rung of the Hundred is what a rookie would earn in the championship – who among us would turn down earning more money for less work?”, pointing to the trend of English players leaning towards The Hundred more than County cricket.
The BCCI omitted Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from its annual retainership list for skipping domestic events for the Indian Premier League, a move that got wide support from other cricket administrators. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
