Who do cricketers work for?
The advent of Twenty20 and the sprouting of million-dollar leagues has changed the way cricket is played and perceived
Nitin Sundar
25-Feb-2013
The advent of Twenty20 and the sprouting of million-dollar leagues has changed the way cricket is played and perceived. Cameron White for instance has chosen to represent a franchise based out of Bangalore in India in the Champions League, instead of his home side Victoria. With commercial considerations clearly taking precedence over origins and identity, Richard Lord of the Wall Street Journal asks a pertinent question: just who do cricketers work for now? The answer is simple: themselves.
With the IPL, the Champions League and all the domestic Twenty20 competitions around the world, it's now quite possible for a player to have a long-term contract with absolutely no one, domestically or internationally. Australia's bad-boy all-rounder Andrew Symonds has already started to do this, after repeated disciplinary clashes with his national board. England's legendary Andrew Flintoff would probably do the same if he weren't injured all the time.
So the issue of who cricketers work for is no nearer to being resolved, except insofar as they definitely work for themselves. For the long-term future of domestic cricket in particular, that's not at all healthy.
Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo