Where did all the money go?
Russell Degnan, writing for Idle Summers, writes how cricket's financial wealth has come at a larger cost
18-Sep-2013
The perception that cricket is in sound financial health tells only half the story. In reality, all the money being pumped into the sport has come at the cost of the ICC scaling back tournaments, restricting international cricket to roughly a third of its members, and leaving as many as five full-member cricket boards bordering on bankruptcy. Russell Degnan, writing for Idle Summers, sheds more light on the subject.
The major difference between cricket and other sports is obviously its international flavour. Numerous sports economists - Szymanski is the most cited - have commented on the difficulties of international (representative) sports compared to domestic (franchise) structures. Notably with uneven competition, the waste of talent unable to gain representation and the inefficiency of multiple stadiums being used for a few days per year. The IPL gets around some of these issues, as does the BBL and other T20 leagues. Their success would leave open the possibility of player wages being paid by domestic competition, and the international arm of the sport making only enough money to pay for its structures. But in order to achieve that, they need to be integrated with each other; and that is not happening; instead each tries to cannibalise the other, leaving both poorer for it.