Tony Greig feels the establishments should be compensated if their players are picked for other teams on the world twenty20 scene
Tony Greig feels the establishments should be compensated if their players are picked for other teams on the world twenty20 scene
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As Lalit Modi tangles with lawyers and the Board of Control for Cricket in India over irregularities in the Indian Premier League, here in Sri Lanka, Tony Greig has cast his thoughts over what he regards are important international and domestic issues which need to be addressed.
This not only includes teams for the Champions League, to be played in South Africa next month, but also domestic Twenty20 series, suggesting that it is time cricket boards be compensated for "loaning" their players to the various IPL franchises and even other domestic events ufffd Australia's Big Bash, or South Africa's Pro20 as well as the T20 event in England where counties eye foreign players as part of crowd-pulling attraction.
RCB riches
Australian Cameron White will represent Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Champions League, a tournament which will also see the participation of his state team Victoria Bushrangers.
However, the Bangalore IPL team will pay Victoria USD 200,000 as compensation.
"Each board has put in a lot of time, funding and effort to develop such players from their under-age tournament days and need a return on their investment," Greig explained. "If, say an Australian state side want to hire a Sri Lankan or New Zealander for their Big Bash, then Sri Lanka Cricket and New Zealand Cricket need to get compensated.
"Also, Sri Lanka are thinking of following such an example, and depending on the teams, if they decide to hire from a foreign supply source (Bangladesh is given as an example), they need to get a form of payment, or a hiring fee," he argued. "I don't think players should be allowed to miss their home tournaments."
Experiment
Greig has also been closely following the experiment in Darwin where the Tasmanian Tigers played the South Australian Redbacks in a 40-over match split into two innings of 20 overs each. "My feeling is that a game where one side is say 80 for five against a team who make 120 for two will have little second innings appeal," he said.
While not calling it an artificial gimmick to "spice up the game" Greig is concerned that too many "quick fix" merchants are promoting change before allowing the effect of the 20-over format on the game at all levels to evolve.u00a0 Here he again came back to the spooking of the format as in the case of Test cricket which he strongly advocates is a "day game".
He says there is a place for the two shorter version formats, but there needs to be a way in which these can coexist without impinging on the other format's territory. This can be done, but it requires a lot of thought to
get the balance right.u00a0u00a0
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