Heather du Plessis-Allan: We're seeing the football-isation of cricket

You can hardly begrudge Kane Williamson, can you, for finally deciding he wants to prioritise making money over wearing the black shirt?

The guy has more than put in his time with the Black Caps. He's been in the squad since 2010, he's been the captain since 2016, you can’t fault his effort. The same actually is true for Lockie Ferguson, he's been in the squad since 2016 himself.

And we’ve got used to this idea through rugby, haven't we? Where the players do their time in the black and then head off and make their money around the world. That is simply what these guys are doing.

But- this isn't to say there isn't something bigger going on here, it's just another example of what’s coming for us.

We've been talking about this on the show for basically two years, this is the footballisation of cricket.

Where basically, you get super tournaments like the IPL and the South African T20 tournament which become more important - and better spectacles - than the international fixtures.

Because it’s where the money is, which draws in the superstars.

And the first real sign that it’s happening is that you have your star players prioritise those competitions over representing their countries. We're seeing it happen - Trent Boult did it, Kane Williamson is doing it, and Lockie Ferguson is doing it.

And let me remind you, the whole team basically did it just a few days ago. Because the IPL players apparently wanted to rest rather than play warm up matches before the T20 World Cup - and we were knocked out after basically 2 matches.

I think the only way to fix this is for the cricket bosses to set aside very clear windows to say: this is the part of the year where the money-making tournaments can be played, and this is the part of the year where the international fixtures can be played.

That way, they don't overlap and you get the players that you need for both of them. That's probably the only way to keep the Black Caps from becoming essentially a B-squad.

As I say, you can’t begrudge these two guys, they've put the time in. But don’t overlook what’s happening here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look on the cricket you can hardly begrudge Kane Williams
and can you for finally deciding you want to prioritize
making money over wearing the black shirt. I mean, the
guy has more than put in his time with the
Black Caps. He's been in the squad since twenty ten,
he's been the captain since twenty sixteen. You can't. I mean,
he has got so many records, you know, he can't
fault his effort and same actually is true even for
Lockie Ferguson. He's been in the squad since twenty sixteen himself.

(00:23):
And we've sort of got used to this idea through rugby,
haven't we, where the players do their time playing for
the squad in black and then they head off overseas
and they make their money around the world. That is
just what these two cricket boys are doing. But it's
not to say that there isn't something bigger going on here,
because there is something big going on. It is just
another example, I would say, of what's coming for us.
And we've been talking about this on the show now

(00:45):
for two years. This is the footballization of cricket, where
basically you get super tournaments like the IPL and the
South African Tea twenty tournament, which become more important and
better spectacles than the international fixtures are because it's where
the money is. So they draw in the superstars and
the first real sign that it's happening is that you

(01:06):
have your star players prioritize those competitions over representing their country,
and we're seeing that happen. Trent Bolt has done it,
Kane Williamson is doing it, Lackie Ferguson is doing it.
And let me remind you, basically the whole team did
it just a few days ago because the IPL players
apparently wanted to rest rather than play a warm up
match before the T twenty World Cup and so as

(01:27):
a result, no warm up match meant that the black
Caps were knocked out after basically two matches. That there
is a straight prioritization of the IPL overplaying for the
black Caps. Now, I think the only way for us
to fix this and we don't have to take this
lying down right the way you can't fix it as
if the rugby are sorry. The cricket bosses globally set
aside very clear windows where they say this is the

(01:49):
part of the year where the money making tournaments can
play and this is the part of the year where
the international fixtures can play it and they don't overlap,
and you get the players that you need for both
of them. Right. That's probably the only way I would
say to keep the black Caps from becoming essentially a
B squad, which is the future for us. That is
what is going to happen. The big tournaments are going
to have all the star players and we're just going

(02:10):
to have the scraps pulled together for the international fixtures. Anyway,
on these two boys, as I say, you can't begrudge
these guys. They've put the time in, but don't overlook
what is happening. Here for more from Heather Duplasy Allen Drive,
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