India’s growing dominance threatens cricket: British newspaper

LAHORE: The Financial Times has stated that India is emerging as a cricket superpower. The Ashes series between England and Australia considered the pinnacle of cricket since the 19th century, is now losing its place. Both powerhouses feel that the pulse of world cricket has shifted decidedly elsewhere. India is fast dethroning England and Australia as the ultimate power in world cricket, a revolution in the game that fans in London or Melbourne have never seen before.

Ever since it launched the Indian Premier League in 2008, India has brought unprecedented wealth to the game. Its teams now attract the world’s best players and have bought new international franchises. India’s governing body dominates global decision-making and India’s share in global cricket revenue is greater than that of England and Australia combined. Even India is influencing how the game is played.

Test teams like England are increasingly adopting the crowd-pleasing, aggressive playing style of the IPL’s short, fast-paced Twenty20 format. IPL chair and former BCCI executive Arun Dhumal said, “India’s influence in world cricket cannot be overstated.” The IPL has been a game changer not only for Indian cricket but also for world cricket. Hosting the Cricket World Cup in October has proved a useful tool for Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a time when he is projecting India as a rising power.

Many of the World Cup’s most important matches, including the final, will be played at its political arena in Ahmedabad, the world’s largest cricket ground, the Narendra Modi Stadium.

But some see India’s growing dominance as a threat to the game, because the country has more control over cricket rules, finances and politics. The BCCI, run by loyalists of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, can be a blunt display of that power. Last year, India refused to travel to arch-rivals Pakistan for the upcoming Asia Cup, which led to the rescheduling of the tournament with many matches in Sri Lanka.

India’s influence is only growing, with the International Cricket Council agreeing a new revenue-sharing deal this month that will cement the country’s financial dominance. Between 2024 and 2027, the CCI will take about 40 percent of the ICC’s revenue. At $230 million a year, that’s about 6 percent of England and Australia.

Some say that the bulk of India’s wealth threatens teams like the West Indies. Indian teams such as Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders and tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai Indians have bought franchises in new Twenty20 leagues everywhere from South Africa and the Caribbean to the United Arab Emirates.

The first season of the American Twenty20 tournament began this month. IPL teams are now pushing to change the rules to allow players to sign year-round contracts, bringing them into an international club model, to be transferred from league to league. Players like England’s Jason Roy and West Indies’ Andre Russell have already turned down international contracts to play for global IPL franchises, a trend fans fear will lead to fewer stars available for international tournaments, including the Ashes.

Critics say it would cause irreparable damage to international matches, the traditional foundation of cricket. A recent financial report by the England and Wales Cricket Board identified the growth of global franchise leagues as a major threat, replacing long-form international Test matches with T20 leagues. However, India has not maintained its dominance in the field, having not won an ICC tournament since 2013 and losing to Australia in the final of the World Test Championship last month.

In another report, the newspaper said that in the past three weeks, stars including England’s Jason Roy, Australia’s Aaron Finch and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan have been paid six million dollars by Dallas, Texas, in an effort to revive cricket in North America. The sport’s roots in America, dating back to the 1750s, go far deeper than the three major modern American sports: baseball, basketball, and American football.

The first international match in history, between the United States and Canada, was played in 1844, three blocks from where Manhattan’s Empire State Building now stands. Cricket scores made the front pages of major newspapers in the 1860s. The game fell into obscurity after the Civil War, which killed many of its American players.