More speculation that international bilateral cricket is heading towards starvation rations and probably death is understandable. Fuel to the fire was provided by a senior Indian Premier League (IPL) administrator who said last week that further expansion of the behemoth tournament is “inevitable” and “just a matter of time”.
And yet, wouldn’t it be gloriously ironic if the IPL franchises realised that the quality of their own product was suffering from the squeeze being placed on “meaningless” ODI and T20 series between nations playing each other largely for the sake of producing content to satisfy domestic TV contracts.
Proteas coach Shukri Conrad raised a few eyebrows in New Zealand last month when he said, “I’m not sure it’s international cricket,” after a five-match T20 series between what were effectively “A” teams from both countries.
Connor Esterhuizen, who was considering giving up the game just a few years ago for lack of opportunity, was man of the match in two of those games, playing the lead role in South Africa winning the series 3-2. A few days ago he was signed by the Gujarat Titans as a replacement for the injured Englishman Tom Banton.
Did the Gujarat coaching team have scouts in New Zealand? Did they have eyes on Esterhuizen? Of course not. International cricket provided him with the stage and window he craved to display his skills, and that was good enough for the IPL. They still attach significant weight and relevance to what cricketers do when they are representing their countries, however sniffily they dismiss it publicly.
Esterhuizen was signed for 7.5m rupees (R1.3m), which, after tax and agent’s commission, should leave him with a few rand short of a million. It is a glorious tale though not quite “rags to riches”. The Lions wicketkeeper/batter was never in rags though it seemed his dreams were in ruins just a few short years ago.
The IPL franchises have long foreseen the demise of international bilateral cricket, which is why their scouting teams prowl schoolboy tournaments from Colombo to Christchurch and everywhere in between. The U-19 World Cup is awash with scouts and agents ― Dewald Brevis, Kwena Maphaka and Lhuan-dre Pretorius are among many players signed in their teens by IPL teams.
Yet all three needed the experience of international cricket to step up from age-group level. Too much irrelevant international cricket is being played, but to suggest that it is all meaningless is a glib generalisation. Just ask the next generation of New Zealand cricketers currently playing an ODI series against Bangladesh. Like South Africa, the Kiwis have become prolific producers of IPL cricketers ― more than a dozen are currently involved ― while Esterhuizen and Gerald Coetzee have pushed the South African number up to a record high of 18.
The IPL franchises have long foreseen the demise of international bilateral cricket, which is why their scouting teams prowl schoolboy tournaments from Colombo to Christchurch and everywhere in between.
There is significant evidence to suggest that international cricket not only helps create IPL-ready cricketers, but it keeps them there for longer and with greater success than those who retire from it. And it is not simply the standard of play; it is what it means. For every one cricketer disinterested in representing their country, there are 99 for whom it is still the ultimate achievement.
Heinrich Klaasen is the leading run scorer in the IPL with 283 runs at an average of 47 from six matches. His strike rate is 144, nowhere near the many gob-smacking innings of 200+ that made his reputation and R40m salary. Several prominent former internationals have mentioned the apparent lack of “edge” to his batting this year.
“I don’t care about strike rate. I’ve put my team in good positions,” Klaasen replied, curtly, when asked about it at the weekend. “You can’t just tee off; that’s not how the game works. We get paid to do the job.” Indeed. But he has had the appropriate match situation to score more quickly and was unable to.
Devastating Trinidadian left-hander Nicholas Pooran was retained on a fee of well over $2m (R32.7m) by his IPL team and has so far contributed 51 runs in six innings without remotely looking like scoring more. Form is temporary; class is permanent, they say.
It is different in the Caribbean, naturally, because Pooran’s national loyalty is to Trinidad ― the “West Indies” is not a real concept to most people in the region. But there does seem to be a natural limit to a player’s lifespan in franchise cricket without something more meaningful to sustain them, especially if they retired prematurely.
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