Staff Writer – Archi
West Indies might have won an international cricket tournament after a long time when they clinched the ICC World T20 meet this year, but the country’s legends of the game like Vivian Richards, Michael Holding and Joel Garner are not at all amused by the rapid growth of the shortest format of the game.
As a matter of fact, the trio have asked the games governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), to show some guts and ban international Twenty20 matches, which they believe is slowly but gradually killing the game.
“I have absolutely nothing good to say about Twenty20 cricket. You should not be playing international Twenty20s, it should remain as domestic tournaments,” Holding recently said in Sydney.
“I have been on different committees at ICC level, and West Indies Cricket Board level, and my problem with most of those committees is that you don’t have enough people with balls on them,” he added.
Former West Indian cricketer Sir Vivian Richards
“There are too many people happy to toe the line to make sure their positions are comfortable on these committees and boards, and ride the wave, instead of saying, ‘No, this ain’t right, let me find some other people who have influence on this committee who can also say this ain’t right and change the direction’,” he felt.
Holding’s one-time teammate Garner felt: “They’re (ICC) the ones who are giving the windows and making the time available to slot Twenty20 competitions.”
Batting great Richards added: “The ICC could play a huge role, as Mikey was saying, in a parenthood role and step in and get all the countries involved. You can still have Twenty20 cricket, which can be a great asset in terms of what you miss with bums on seats as far as Test cricket is concerned.”
The former West Indies skipper, who himself used to play Test matches much like the modern-day T20 matches, advocated a proper balance in world cricket. “I just want balance, and if you have balance you will have a much better ratio of individuals wanting to represent their countries. We lack leadership at this point with where this is all going,”
Michael Holding. Photo courtesy tvnewsroom.co.uk
he said.
“The ICC have been given the mandate to show leadership on the issues and have been found wanting,” he concluded.
Holding felt the huge money being offered by domestic T20 leagues like the Indian Premier League or the Big Bash in Australia is actually ruining cricket.
“It’s big money for the players, and I must tell you if I was playing today I would want to play because if someone’s giving me $1m for six weeks I ain’t going to say no. I don’t blame the cricketers, I blame the administrators. It is like a family, the parents are supposed to be leading the way.”
Taking a dig at ICC, Holding said: “The administrators (ICC) who run the game are a waste of time, and they’re allowing Twenty20 cricket to basically destroy world cricket.”
India generates about 80 per cent of cricket’s overall revenue and have massive sway in the scheduling of the IPL and Champions League among the already packed international schedule.
“No one country can run it on their own, that is a fact,” Holding said. “So if the rest of the ICC members sat together and said we’re going to band together for the betterment of the game not because we don’t like India … whichever country is out of line would have to come into line irrespective of how much money they have. They can’t play amongst themselves.
“But everyone wants a piece of the pie. The game is immaterial, it is about the money, it’s all about the money.”
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