Sports

ICC to Bring New Rules for Player Preservation and to Curb T20 Format’s Popularity

The International Cricket Council is looking to shake things up. The cricket watchdog is mulling over steps that could potentially curb the popularity of the T20 match format. It is hoping to do so by devising certain laws that can restrain the shorter format from taking over Test cricket, at least in terms of popularity.

According to cricket experts and the authority, too much of T20 cricket is diminishing the significance of Tests, which is the parent format of the game. A meeting has been called by ICC in Kolkata in April where the chief executives of the full member national boards will be uniting on this issue.

New Changes in Cricket Format

Here are some of the radical suggestions that have been proposed by the ICC:

Restricting players under 32 to three domestic T20 leagues per year
Regional T20 windows that leave six months of the year clear for international cricket from 2023 onwards
All leagues to pay 20% of a player’s contract value to their home board as mandatory compensation
Capping the number of overseas players in each domestic T20 league
Standardized conditions that guarantee player welfare and payment

West Indies, being the most affected cricketing nation, is leading this cause for quite a long time. The Carribean member is looking forward to putting together the suggestions for the betterment of the International Cricket, while England and Australia are also throwing their support behind this stance.

India’s Take On The Upcoming Regulations

India is also an influential member of the ICC and the ground realities show that it will also go in the favor of the West Indian stance. As a matter of fact, the young Indian players aren’t allowed to take part in overseas T20 competitions and its Indian Premier League already pays the 20% compensation figure for players it imports.

This may also result in the consolidation of the IPL’s status as the outright market leader!

Is it the End of T20 Cricket?

Certainly not! ICC wants to maintain a balance between all the formats of cricket and in the current scenario.

As per the proposal, ICC is looking to divide the domestic leagues into regional zones. The zones will be given two months each to conduct their respective leagues. The proposed zones are Asia, Europe/Americas and Africa/Pacific with time slots of April/May, mid-July/mid-September, December/January respectively.

The cause is also based on the fact that with all these T20 leagues played worldwide, the investment has shifted from player’s development to the owner’s bank accounts. This has lead to numerous misunderstandings between the players and the cricketing board and West Indies seems to be the biggest victim!

Although, the drafted regulations may seem to be going against the players, there is still a lot of room for improving them.