So much money – but all so worthless

Nov 3 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

THE cheque was handed over, Sir Allen Stanford’s newly-rich Superstars did a lap of honour and expensive fireworks exploded in the Antiguan sky. “The winner takes it all,” played the DJ Chickie Baptiste. “The loser’s standing small.”

And thus we were given a few reminders, though heaven knows none were needed, that last week’s cricket in the Caribbean was all about money.

Which can empower as well as corrupt. When Chris Gayle revealed in the aftermath of victory that his first priority would be “to hook up my brother to a doctor to fix his heart,” he offered the clearest evidence that the Stanford millions would indeed be as “life changing” as Sky’s commentators had assured us.

Compared to Graeme Swann’s much-publicised comment that he would buy a pink Ferrari if he picked up a million dollar cheque, Gayle’s disclosure supported the contention that Stanford’s dosh had gone to the team which needed it rather than the one which wanted it.

As for the cricket, it is by no means a skill-free zone despite Kevin Pietersen’s players doing their best to support the opposite case.

But there was something missing. England’s 10-wicket defeat offered a reminder that for sport to be truly gripping there needs to be something more at stake than cash.

Neither of the teams had earned their places on the field. There had been no qualifying rounds, no semi-finals, no group tables. The game was nothing more than a match for money, something that sets it apart from, say, a Champions League or Wimbledon final, or trying to win an Olympic gold medal after four years’ dedicated effort.

Compared to those occasions, the Stanford game suffers badly. The “richest ever payday in the history of team sport” was almost entirely worthless.

And where does it leave the rapidly-changing face of world cricket ?

Sir Allen Stanford may have surveyed his ground with the serene arrogance of a Roman emperor who knew that he ruled all that he surveyed, but the balance of power still lies with India’s corporate and media elites.

The second season of the Indian Premier League begins next spring; in 2010 there will be an English version; the following year the plan is to hold a Twenty20 event in the southern hemisphere. Many cricketers will want to take part in them all.

The challenge for governing bodies will be to ensure that the players receive their financial rewards while still preserving the longer, more absorbing, more testing forms of the game.

For ‘swinganamiss’ Twenty20 cricket is rather like Leylandii – it has its uses but most people don’t want it to overrun what is a very beautiful and richly-varied garden.