Questions raised by the Rajasthan deal

In the Wisden Cricketer, Lawrence Booth wonders what the implications the global deal between Rajasthan Royals and teams from three other countries mean. Among the questions he asks are:

Will anyone watch?

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If you were a Hampshire supporter, would you pay to turn up at the Rose Bowl in July and watch Trinidad & Tobago v Cape Cobras? The Royals 2020 brains trust insists big names and high-quality cricket will be enough to fill grounds, but this was presumably said with fingers crossed, and the example of the Champions League was not encouraging: Indian fans quickly lost interest after the IPL franchises were knocked out. But if this idea can attract yet another new type of fan (or are we running out of new types of fans?), then at the very least, the suits will be telling themselves, it’s got to be worth a try.

Mike Atherton, in the Times, says "national governing bodies hold sway" for the moment but he feels that "ultimately, the franchises have certain advantages in this battle for power."

Having scored his runs, taken his wickets and contextualised his name in perpetuity, there is no doubting which side Shane Warne is on now: forget the Ashes, he said this week, the IPL was one of the greatest moments of his cricketing career, if not the greatest.

The scramble is on. Paul Sheldon, the Surrey chief executive, has been in India, along with several other county chief executives, gauging reaction and potential tie-ups; Jim Cumbes, the Lancashire chief executive, sounding somewhat late out of the blocks, said that a county of Lancashire’s size, reputation and importance would be foolish to overlook the potential. All the while they sounded like newspaper executives did when they talked of the internet not so long ago — that there must be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow somewhere and they had better not be the ones to miss out.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey writes about what really bothers him about the deal -"... the sheer arrogance of Manoj Badale, Warne and Sean Morris, men who speak not of cricket but in the language of franchises, marketing models, brand awareness, business opportunities and bottom lines in trying to impose something upon a structure which is already overseen by another organisation."