Cricket's future in disarray
Robert Craddock in Australia's Daily Telegraph is concerned that Andrew Flintoff's decision to become freelance could be a wider indication of players' changing priorities
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Robert Craddock in Australia's Daily Telegraph is concerned that Andrew Flintoff's decision to become freelance could be a wider indication of players' changing priorities. He writes that in Australia, the baggy green cap is not the lure it once was for young players.
Many young cricketers look at Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke and think they could never be that good. But they look at lesser performers such as David Warner and Moises Henriques landing six figure IPL deals and think, "That could be me''.
Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Symonds are the first top cricketers to become international freelancers, but if there is one certainty in life it is they won't be the last. England this week offered Flintoff a $60,000 contract to play one-day and Twenty20 cricket and he knocked it back.
Why wouldn't he? In the Indian Premier League he can get that in two days.
And that's nothing compared with what's happening further down the ladder. Take the case of Bangladesh fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza. He earns $US600,000 for two months work for the Kolkata Knight Riders yet around $US60,000 for playing for his home nation for a full year.What do you think will become his priority?
In the Independent, Stephen Brenkley agrees that it is players in less well-paying countries who must be kept in the system.
Those in the corridors of power know that Flintoff could be a trailblazer for players in countries where board contracts are not nearly so lucrative – places like West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, all of them integral components of cricket's family.
So paltry are their rewards for playing international cricket that it is easy to promulgate the notion of their players departing the scene as soon as they have made an impression. Even in countries where the rewards are greater accomplished players will leave three or four years before their time to take full advantage of the stupendous pay packets being offered – exclusively for now but probably not for long – in the Indian Premier League.
If the players are not engaged then the television companies and the fans who foot the bills would eventually turn away. All this is not going to happen tomorrow but it is possible the day after tomorrow.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here