Cricket Australia on Friday approved overseas private investments in its revamped IPL-style Twenty20 tournament from next year, paving the way for Indian companies and individuals to become minority stake holders of the teams.

Announcing the launch of Big Bash Bash Twenty20 League from 2011-12 after the Cricket Australia Board meeting here, CA chief executive James Sutherland said minority private ownership of franchisees has been approved and the process of seeking expressions of interest will start after working out the details.

“The Board has approved investment of minority holdings in each of the respective teams and the details of that will be further contemplated in the coming weeks. It will, over the coming months, consider the terms under which that private investment may take place but the Board is certainly open to that,” Sutherland said at a press conference.

“I think it’s interesting to see the sort of values one might place on these teams based on the investor interest; certainly compared to other sporting franchises or teams around this country it puts these Big Bash teams at an all new level and as high a value as any sporting team in the country,” he said.

Sutherland said various models of private ownership will have to be looked into and details worked out in order to make sure it works for everyone.

“All of the teams may well have private investment, we’ll see how things unfold and what expressions of interest may come through in terms of investment, but as a matter of principle the board has approved minority holdings as being the level of investment they will permit.

“There are certainly opportunities (from private investors) on the table and they are opportunities that will be explored over the coming weeks once we’ve worked through the detail,” said Sutherland who had predicted that the BBL can revolutionise the game just like the Kerry Packer World Series did three decades ago.

Media reports had claimed that Indian companies are waiting to take the plunge by splashing big sums of money in the eight franchisees of BBL once private investment is approved by the CA.

The reports even said that Australia’s most powerful cricket states NSW and Victoria will have Indian part-owners as they have already sold shares to giant Indian corporations for around USD 60 million in return for profits from the IPL-type eight-team Twenty20 tournament.

‘Daily Telegraph’ said Brisbane-based Gautam Adani Group, which lost an IPL bid, is interested in buying stakes in an Australian side for the BBL.

The newspaper said NSW Cricket has set up a separate business entity, known as Blues Inc, to run the state’s Twenty20 franchises, and Indian investors want a 49 per cent share of the company and have all but signed off on a figure of USD 30 million.

Another daily, ‘The Australian’ claimed that NSW had discussions with Jay Mehta, the billionaire co-owner of IPL side Kolkata Knight Riders, about investing in the state’s cricket.

It said that both NSW and Victoria have different four-man consortia from India willing to pay millions of dollars to take a minority share-holding in the new Sydney and Melbourne teams.

Desperate to cash in on the Twenty20 gold rush with the advent of the IPL, CA has brought forward its BBL plans by a year but Sutherland said the new league should not be seen as a competitor to the hugely successful Indian Premier League.

“I don’t think we see ourselves as a competitor to the IPL (in terms of player earnings) and certainly the revenues that the Cricket Australia Big Bash League can generate. In a small market such as Australia it’s not going to be the same as the IPL. But at the same time this league is on the international stage and the teams that play-off in the finals will qualify for the Champions League Twenty20.

“I’d prefer not to go into the specific detail (of which areas are being looked at for the expansion teams) of where we are looking at. We will go through a process of seeking expressions of interest over the coming weeks and we’re very interested in talking to people around the country who think it might be appropriate that a team be placed in a certain region,” he said.

Giving details of the BBL, Sutherland said, “It will be an eight-team competition, six of which will be coming out of the cities that our current state teams play in. They will be city-based teams, not state-based teams and that will in turn be a real change in format. The two additional teams and the venues of which those two teams play will be decided in due course as we work through the process.”

“The competition will be owned, controlled and managed by CA and everyone in Australian cricket is excited about this new Big Bash League; we see it as a fantastic opportunity for the game to grow off the back of the incredible popularity of Twenty20 cricket and to bring new fans to the game of cricket,” he said.

Sutherland said the competition would initially be played over five-six weeks period and it could be expanded in future depending on its success.

“At the moment our plans are for the competition to be played through the prime competition summer period in December and January. There are various models that we have talked about that could see an expansion of that competition over a longer period but in the short-term it will be played over a five to six week period through December, January and perhaps creeping into February in some years.

“In the short term we’re probably talking about where each team plays seven or eight matches and we’ve considered, as the competition grows, not only more matches but more teams joining the competition. Perhaps, in three, four or five years’ time expanding from an eight-team competition to a 10-team competition,” the CA top official said.

Sutherland made it clear that new league will not undermine the importance of other formats of cricket and the famous Boxing Day Test is safe.

“The Boxing Day Test is safe. Our priority rests with international cricket but all of the research we have done very strongly indicates that the enjoyment that people get from the game of cricket can be spread over the three formats of the game or discretely held with one format of the game.

“There are a lot of fans out there that just enjoy Twenty20 cricket and I think that the game of cricket is in a fortunate place in having three successful and popular formats and Twenty20 cricket is certainly one of those formats on the rise,” he said.

“It (BBL) is complimentary to what we are doing with international cricket. We’ve always said that Twenty20 cricket should compliment and not compromise international cricket and that’s really the balance that the Board needs to strike in working through fixturing issues. There’s certainly no consideration at this stage for any exclusive windows for the Big Bash League,” he added.

CA also expects that the league will grow and it will attract foreign players.

“It’s another factor of the Big Bash League that it is already an international competition in the qualification for the Champions League, but having international players play in it – mindful of the fact that international players have international playing commitments for their country – there will hopeful be opportunities for international players to play in the league. We expect that will grow as the competition grows in value and passion around the country and around the world.”

The One-day game, once cricket’s mainstay, is losing ground alarmingly to Twenty20 in terms of sponsor interest and revenue generation. If comparative valuation figures are any indication, the raging debate over the 50-over format’s future may be entirely justified.

Just a few years ago, an ODI match involving India was worth at least $6 million (in terms of revenue from broadcast, title and on-ground sponsorship). But in the post-T20 era, that’s down to less than one million for a bilateral One-day game.

In contrast, an Indian Premier League (IPL) game is worth $8 million and an ICC World T20 tie is valued at $5 million, industry sources revealed.

In the clearest warning yet of waning interest in the One-day game, official broadcasters paid just $5 million in March for telecast rights to the entire five-match ODI series between India and Sri Lanka. The series also included one T20 game.

The upcoming Champions Trophy in South Africa, starting later this month, will be the acid test for the One-day format.

But BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla, defends the validity of ODIs in the age of T20. “Valuation is not everything,” Shukla told TOI. Broadcasters also advised caution with one senior executive saying T20 was doing well in India because it is an “action-packed thriller”.

Valuation figures suggest ODIs are no more the financial engine drivers of cricket, but the upcoming Champions Trophy in South Africa offers hope.

With only the top eight teams in the fray, each game could be worth close to $3 million, still less than an IPL game but much more than the valuation of bilateral ODIs.

“BCCI has accepted the T20 format and so have spectators. It’s good for the game. But you can’t mix the two (ODIs and T20). Both have their charm and T20 and ODIs are both here to stay,” said BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla.

Broadcasters also suggested caution before jumping to conclusions. A senior broadcast executive said, “Anything which is new in India generally does well and T20 is not an exception. A T20 game is like an action-packed thriller. We wonder how long the spectators can sustain their interest before reverting back to ODIs. We are confident the trend will change.”

The fact remains, though, that advertisers are willing to pay more money for a 10-minute slot during a T20 match than for a One-dayer or a Test, both of which offer greater opportunity for extended brand exposure since they go on longer.

During the IPL, advertisers were paying more than Rs 4 lakh for a 10-minute slot. In the World T20, slots were sold at an average rate of Rs 3 lakh but after India failed to qualify for the semis, advertising rates dropped.

For the Champions Trophy, the projected rate is Rs 3 lakh for every 10 seconds. If India win, rates could increase for upcoming India-Australia home ODI series.

Twenty20 cricket was branded as “fun” when it was launched as a professional sport in England six years ago. 

But as the blame game started over who was responsible for the decision to call-off Tuesday’s Twenty20 international between England and Australia without a ball being bowled, one thing was clear: top players are not prepared to take any chances with conditions just to entertain a capacity crowd.

Twenty20 cricket has gone from ‘hit and giggle’ to a lucrative business thanks to the advent of the Indian Premier League and the World Twenty20.

Tuesday’s match was abandoned primarily because a two-metre square area damp patch on the line of the bowlers’ run-ups at the Brian Statham End was ruled unsafe by the umpires.

Former Australia fast bowler Jeff Thomson labelled the players “soft”.

But with Australia’s attack set to have featured Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Dirk Nannes, all of whom can bowl at over 90mph, captain Michael Clarke was in no mood to take risks.

“I’m 75 kilos and for me to put my foot on that was very unstable so I can’t imagine (England’s Ryan) Sidebottom, Lee and Johnson – bigger boys than me – running into bowl on that,” he said.

“There’s no game I play for Australia that I’m willing to just go out and bowl some full-tosses so the crowd get a great spectacle,” Clarke added.

After the match the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced they would hold an inquiry, with Lancashire facing questions as to why an international match was abandoned because a small area of the outfield was wet.

Although 600,000 pounds was spent on a new drainage system in the pre-season, it did not cover the run-up area as the square at Old Trafford is to be turned next year, when the new drains in that section of the ground will be installed.

Angry Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes insisted inadequate covering and drainage were not behind the abandonment, which came after Sunday’s first Twenty20, also at Old Trafford, was also washed out.

“I’m perfectly aware of the safety of players, I played the game for 20 years myself,” former Lancashire seamer Cumbes said.

“But there are times when you’ve got to think about the people who’ve paid 50 quid (pounds).

“Sometimes I think we’d rather play in front of empty stadiums,” he added after the crowd reacted with impressive restraint to the lack of cricket.

Tuesday’s was the third embarrassing abandonment England have been involved in this year.

Three months ago a One-Day International (ODI) against the West Indies at Headingley was abandoned in bright sunshine without a ball bowled because a new drainage system couldn’t cope with a downpour.

That in turn followed the abandonment of this year’s Antigua Test on England’s Caribbean tour because of an unfit outfield.

On Friday, England and Australia are set to play the first of seven ODIs at the Oval, where in 1977 they took part in an extraordinary limited-overs match.

Back then, play continued despite rain and then hail lashing the ground and Australia captain Greg Chappell saw his side to a two-wicket victory with a superb 125 not out.

Although there was a reserve day, that clashed with a public holiday for the celebration of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, monarch of both Britain and Australia.

And that meant there would be no television coverage if the game went into a second day.

“I realised the best chance of winning was to get off and start again the next day,” Chappell said. “But I played on for the sponsors’ sake.”

David Frith, writing in the Cricketer magazine, said: “As for the bemused spectators, they were left to reflect that in the days ahead first-class cricketers, far from splashing about willingly, would not be prepared to emerge if there was the smallest spot of rain in the air.”

More often than not, it seems, they still aren’t.

Star all-rounder Andrew Flintoff says he will not reconsider his retirement decision despite Australia putting England on the backfoot on day-one of the deciding Ashes Test at the Oval.

Flintoff, who will retire from Tests after the Ashes owing to recurring injuries, may not get the chance to bid adieu to the longer version of the game on a high with a win as England were reduced to 307 for 8 on the first day of the fifth and final match.

“That’s what you do when you retire — you say I am not playing again,” Flintoff said adding that “I cannot see myself giving up Test cricket and then going into four-day cricket,” he said about his role for Lancashire.

“If I felt I needed a game before a one-day series or if Lancashire were struggling with injuries, I would play here and there,” he was quoted as saying by ‘The Times’.

Flintoff, who plays for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League, will be concentrating on the One-dayers and Twenty20.

Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi reckons reviving Test cricket‘s popularity is the next challenge ahead of the administrators, while Sachin Tendulkar believes the first step in that direction could be throwing open the gates for school and college students.

“One of the suggestions I gave to the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) was to make Test cricket day/night affair to allow people to come and watch it after their duty hours,” said Modi, hailed for making Twenty20 in general and IPL in particular a massive success, during a panel discussion on Tuesday.

The discussion followed the release “Out of the Box – Watching the Game We Love”, a book by commentator Harsha Bhogle whose first copy was presented to Tendulkar.

Taking part in the discussion, albeit as part of the packed audience, Tendulkar once again repeated his idea to the Cricket Board that it should allow free entry to the students to convert them into fans of the traditional form of the game.

“I have already suggested this to the BCCI. Going to watch the India vs West Indies Test match in 1983 at the Wankhede Stadium as a seven-year-old is etched in my memory. The BCCI should open the gates on weekends to top school and college children to savour Test cricket live. If at least 10 per cent of them become Test fans, the purpose would be served,” he said.

Tendulkar’s former India team-mate and now a television expert, Sanjay Manjrekar, felt that the problem with Test cricket is that though the fans loved seeing three bouncers directed at a batsman by a bowler or catches taken in the slips, it was too spread-out.

“This action is spread out over seven hours which is too long. When you tweak that, Test cricket can be enjoyable,” said Manjrekar.

Modi said with so many other forms of entertainment readily available to the consumers these days, they need to be attracted to the game.

“There are other sports for the consumer to turn to. There are 100 or 150 TV channels too. One way forward is to play day-night Tests. Also we need to schedule more Tests into the FTP which can be done for the 2012-2020 programme,” he suggested.

Manjrekar, supporting Australian great Shane Warne who has said 50-over cricket has lost its shelf life, said there was too much mediocrity in the more traditional limited-overs format.

“What I want is excellence but I feel there’s too much mediocrity in 50-over games. Take for example the recent series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, where 80 per cent of the runs were scored through ones and two’s and not through boundary hits,” he pointed out.

Two cricketers from Gujarat, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja on Tuesday joined the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) as executives (Sports and Culture) at a ceremony organised by the company.

Both Yusuf and Jadeja were inducted into the company by its group president (corporate affairs) Parimal Nathwani.

“Yusuf and Ravindra need no introduction. Yusuf belongs to Vadodara and Ravindra hails from Jamnagar. Both towns have history and legacy of cricket,” Nathwani said.

“We all see a great cricketing potential and future in Pathan and Jadeja. They are colleagues at Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and now they become colleagues at Reliance. They become our executives (Sports and Culture) and join the roll with Parthiv Patel,” he said.

Wicket-keeper Patel was the first cricketer to join RIL rolls on June 25, 2004.

There are trends developing in world cricket that are of concern to the future of the game, including in India, Indian coach Gary Kirsten said.

“Team India has to decide its priorities in terms of Test cricket and other forms of the game, like T20″, he said.

“It’s quite interesting that we’ve got a Twenty20 World Cup in April next year in the West Indies and Team India don’t play one T20 game until that tournament starts.

“What should be happening is that we should be going on tour and playing six T20 games and one or two 50 over games. I think that’s going to happen – it’s just a matter of time.

Kirsten said he believed that 50-over games were “here to stay”.

On Test cricket, Kirsten said: “The worrying side that I’m seeing is that a guy like Andrew Flintoff as a high profile cricketer has now made the decision to leave Test cricket because he feels that he can get more longevity out of his body and earn a much more money by moving away from Test cricket and playing One-day and T20 cricket.

“He’s perfectly right in his decision. Why not?

“The one area that is concerning me about where Test cricket is going is that if you are going to be paying playing substantially more to play IPL as opposed to playing a Test match for their country, it’s a natural progression that the guys are then going to say ‘I’m not interested in bowling 25 overs in a day when I can bowl four over a six-day period and earn three times as much.’”

Kirsten said the “bottom line” was that every country needed to look at Test cricket and say how important it was to them.

“Team India plays six Tests this year. Is that sufficient or are there other priorities? I don’t know.”

“We do need to look at the economics, but if we are going to keep Test cricket going like we wanted to, we need to sort out the priorities of Test cricket and (whether it) stands above anything else (like) T20 cricket.”

A South African cricket row has spread to the international arena with Johannesburg shunned for most of the top ICC Champions Trophy fixtures this September and October.

South Africa will play their three Group B fixtures at 20,000-capacity Centurion Park beside the highway linking Johannesburg and Pretoria and defending champions Australia go there for two Group A games.

The showdown between Asian giants India and Pakistan is also scheduled for Centurion plus a semi-final and the final as a split between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and its Wanderers-based Gauteng affiliate deepens.

Wanderers can accommodate 11,000 more spectators than Centurion and Gauteng officials claim the original fixture list had South Africa playing two group games there and that the final was also scheduled for the “Bullring”.

England (twice), Australia, Pakistan and India will appear at Wanderers, which ranks among the best known global Test cricket venues, but Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand are unlikely crowd pullers.

Pakistan should have staged the one-day mini-World Cup tournament in 2008, but security concerns led to South Africa taking over a 15-match event critics claim is an unnecessary addition to a congested international calendar.

Gauteng stirred a storm last month by accusing chief executive Gerald Majola of putting CSA at financial risk and requesting details of an agreement between the national body and the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The IPL, switched to South Africa last April because it clashed with general elections and there was insufficient security personnel to cover both events, fought with various CSA affiliates over stadium hospitality boxes.

Indian officials wanted exclusive use of the suites and while an uneasy truce was declared, Gauteng relented at the last minute and later threatened a court interdict to halt the final.

Legal steps were considered after an IPL demand for 1,000 extra parking places for the climax of the 59-fixture Twenty20 tournament was rejected only when the provincial government intervened.

While the affiliate want talks, CSA has adopted a hard line, taking three fixtures on the England tour that starts in November away from Wanderers in a move set to cost Gauteng millions of dollars.

CSA officials are furious that Gauteng documents describe some of those involved in the dispute as “lunatics” and “dishonest”, and want the affiliate to apologise.

The November 13 Twenty20 fixture against England has been moved to the Indian Ocean city of Durban while the central city of Bloemfontein takes over as hosts of the first ODI a week later.

St George’s Park in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth replaces Wanderers as the venue for the last of four Tests between January 14 and 18 against England.

The Indian Premier League will not be given a permanent slot in the international cricket calendar, the ICC said on Tuesday.

Many top cricketers had to sit out of IPL due to their national commitments which has prompted calls for granting the cash-rich Twenty20 event a permanent window in the ICC calendar.

But the game’s governing body is not considering any such proposal at the moment.

“No we are not considering giving a window to IPL. Mr Lalit Modi (IPL commissioner) has frequently said that a window for IPL is not appropriate and I agree with him,” ICC President David Morgan said in a telephonic interview from London.

Asked whether this could lead to players opting out of bilateral tours to take part in the IPL, Morgan said it would only happen in the case of those on the brink of retirement.

“I think some cricketers who are coming to the end of their career will opt to play in domestic leagues like IPL. But I believe established international cricketers will want to play international cricket,” he said.

The Twenty20 boom has cast a shadow on the future of Test cricket, which was in any case losing popularity with spectators.

Morgan said ICC has plans to revitalise the longest version of the sport and reducing Test matches to four days was one of the options.

“I believe that Test cricket is very interesting product but there have been some matches that have been played in front of very poor crowd. The matches have been draws almost from day two forward and that is often due to the pitch not giving a fair balance between ball and bat,” he said.

“But having said that, there has been some great Test matches in recent times. They have been played over four or five days. The Ashes Test in Birmingham was one of the greatest of all times and that finished in three days and one session.

“We look at Test cricket as prime product and we look at the possibility of four days rather than five. We concern ourselves with quality of pitches and also overrate, because we have to be ever conscious of the need of the paying public,” he added.

Asked whether the ICC would consider a two-tier structure for Tests, Morgan said such a system was already in place.

“To some extent, that happens currently, doesn’t it? Because in a six-year cycle, some nations play each other home-and-away every four years as opposed to six years. They play five-match Test match series as opposed to three-match Test series. So there already is an element of stronger teams playing each other more frequently,” he said.

Morgan did not foresee any such threat to one-day cricket, which he said was the cash-provider for the other formats.

“The 50-overs game has been the cash-provider for other forms of cricket over a long period of time and I believe there is a continuing future for 50-over cricket. We have introduced the batting powerplays and I believe that is a quite bold change and that would definitely add interest to the game,” he said.

The ever-increasing cricket has raised concerns about the players’ fitness and whether they can cope with playing almost non-stop through the year.

Morgan said the it was upto the member boards to decide the quantity of matches.

“It’s not ICC which determines the volume of cricket, member boards do. But it’s important that players have time to practise, to rest and to recharge their batteries,” he said.

Players’ behaviour has also become a concern with some ugly on-field spats in the past few years but Morgan insisted that a bit of banter doesn’t harm anyone.

“I think players behaviour in the Twenty20 World Cup was fantastic. The games were played in wonderful spirit. I believe that cricketers at the highest level always want to have conversation and I don’t see any harm in that.

“But for us, spirit of cricket is very important. I think the players are increasingly more and more aware of the need to play the game in the right spirit,” he said.

“I also believe the referral system that is being rolled out will improve player behaviour,” he added.

Shiv Sena on Thursday staged demonstrations outside the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), warning the cricket body of “dire consequences” if it cancels Deodhar trophy tournament.

“BCCI has planned Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in Maharashtra at the cost of Deodhar trophy tournament. The Board has insulted Marathi pride by cancelling the tournament named after Prof D B Deodhar,” Sena leader Subhash Desai said.

“We have given a statement to chief administrative officer of the BCCI, Ratnakar Shetty, condemning the decision,” Desai said.

Shetty assured the Sena delegation that the tournament would be held. However, if the trophy is cancelled, “Shiv Sena will not allow a single IPL match to take place in the state”, Desai warned.