Advent of T20 ends monopoly of cricket boards on players

Brian Charles Lara.

In his playing days, Brian Charles Lara had the perfect antidote to all the poisons. He stood tall against any and every test of time. He amassed multiple batting records, more in Test than other formats. His 501 not out for Warwickshire, 400 and 375 against England, match-winning 153 against Australia and more just makes him a rare gem, a great fighter, in the game of cricket. However, 'The Prince' of traditional game welcomes the slam-bang format of Twenty20 cricket. In fact, he said the advent of T20 cricket was 'necessary'.
"T20 moves into not just playing international matches but franchise cricket with IPL, Big Bash, CPL and quite a few leagues around the world, which is great. It takes that monopoly that cricket board have on players. Players are now associating themselves with franchise owners, which is good. Before it was kind of tough for the players in terms of playing regular cricket. If you were playing international cricket, it was tough for you to play anywhere else. So I believe this has spread game of cricket to all corners of the world, which is great as well," Lara said in an exclusive chat with Khaleej Times on sidelines of inaugural Abu Dhabi T20 tournament.
He noted that T20 didn't meant end of the traditional game of cricket. However, five days of cricket is finding few takers now.
"Test cricket is always something that is very strong in some countries and not so strong in others. If I was to speak for West Indies alone, I remember going to Test match in 1979 and you couldn't even get inside the park. Up to about five years ago I was handing a cap to a debutant player and there was nobody in the stadium. In some places the desire from the public to come out is lost. They no longer feel that is something they want to see. So having T20 is great. I don't see any problem with it. Five days of cricket has always been tough."
On a positive note, he noted that T20 has got new spectators to the stadiums.
"Maybe when there wasn't much before Tests, people used to flock those games but once 50 overs game was introduced, you saw a bit of a decrease in the crowd and same with T20. But this still means that we have cricket. We have a game which has drawn new sponsorship and brought new spectators to the ground."
He reiterated that the traditional Test series will 'never die'.
"Australia versus England for the Ashes, Pakistan versus India is going to always create excitement. South Africa and West Indies love Test cricket. But something should be done if you want people to come."
He lauded the conduct of inaugural Abu Dhabi T20 and suggested ways to develop the tournament.
"This is unique for having club teams and not international teams. What we want to see now is to have fans follow this. You want this planned six to eight months in advance so that you give people, who follow these clubs, the opportunity to travel to Abu Dhabi and see the matches because you can put together 5-6 days of exciting things to do and not just cricket. You got Ferrari World, golf and amazing places to see. This could be a good holiday for everyone."
He noted that there's lot riding in such tournament for those who perform.
"Now any cricket is played around the world a lot of scouts are looking. This didn't happen before. You may feel that this is just a normal club tournament but lots of scouts are looking at players performing here," Lara concluded.
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com