KEY POINTS:
There can rarely have been a more bizarre double bill. One night at Lord's it was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the world's greatest men. The next day, it was Sir Allen Stanford, one of its richest.
One spoke about humanity, the other brought along a shedload of cash. It was an astonishing juxtaposition that embodied what cricket was and is desperately striving still to be, and what it is in grave danger of becoming.
Archbishop Tutu had flown from South Africa to deliver the annual Cowdrey Memorial Spirit of Cricket Lecture; Sir Allen, a Texan billionaire, had come from Antigua to launch an annual winner-take-all Twenty20 cricket match to be played between England and a West Indies XI for US$20 million ($26.6 million).
"Cricket reminds us," said the Archbishop, "that we are made for togetherness, that we can make this world more compassionate, more loving, more caring, more gentle ... ". It brought the house down.
"I find test cricket boring, but I'm not a purist," said Sir Allen the following day. The audience squirmed.
The England and Wales Cricket Board probably had no option but to conclude the Stanford deal. The players, already denied a share of the riches on offer in the smash-hit Indian Premier League, would never have forgiven them if they had spurned his advances.
The trouble lay in the presentation. It was meretricious in almost every respect - even, maybe especially, the US$20 million in cash there on which to gaze as if to prove the slogan: Twenty20 for Twenty. It took US$20 million to buy the ECB, but they could have spared us the guff about it being a union of soulmates. The ECB will receive a similar amount.
The winning team will be awarded $1 million a man a year, the losers nothing. It may be exciting and dramatic but the match is to all intents meaningless, a one-off exhibition. But the price is right all right: the ECB reported that their phones were ringing off the hook with fans desperate to buy tickets for the first match on November 1.
In the past few months, Twenty20 has taken on a life of its own and now threatens to take over, like the pampered child who ends up in control.
Test cricket and 50-over cricket are both under threat. It is difficult to see how the latter can survive or how the former can prosper. All the attention is being lavished on the new kid.
Never can the International Cricket Council's voice have been so important, rarely has their deafening silence been so unwanted. Their annual conference begins in Dubai on June 29. Someone has to speak out and urge action. It may be necessary to bang a few heads together in the desert. If only Desmond Tutu were there.
- INDEPENDENT
