ACA lobbies for global club event

The Australian Cricketers' Association has outlined its push for an international club competition that would "spread the workload" of its players. Following the initial success of the city-based franchises of the Indian Premier League, Paul Marsh, the ACA chief executive, has called for a reduction in traditional contests, an ICC-sanctioned window for Twenty20 tournaments and an end to the "counter-productive" official views on the rival Indian events.

Marsh said the game was relying too heavily on international matches for its revenue and the global club structure would ease the financial pressure and player demands. He said Australia's cricketers represented the country for an average of 100 days per year compared to 15 for the national rugby union team and ten for the Socceroos.

"It is clear that cricket is limiting its potential by relying on too much from too few," Marsh said in the ACA's newsletter. "Up until the advent of Twenty20, our game may not have had the vehicle with which to move towards an international club structure. With Twenty20's popularity and format, we now have this vehicle."

Marsh, who has already pushed for a window in the ICC's Future Tours Programme, wants the new format to complement international games, but has asked for a cut in those matches. "Test cricket between traditional rivals and important ODI events should be protected," he said. "However, there is scope to reduce the current numbers of games, particularly ODIs."

The ACA sees two models developing if a window is created. "Similar to soccer, international club leagues could be formed throughout the world and players would likely end up in leagues commensurate with their ability," Marsh said. In that scenario the IPL could be the leading competition with other events in Australia and England containing the next rung of players.

"Or the IPL may become the only club league, but would expand internationally to include teams from all over the world," Marsh said. "We may see a league with six clubs in India, two in Australia, England, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa etc, one team in China and the United States and so on."

The players' union has received strong support from its members over the Indian Premier League and its unsanctioned rival, the Indian Cricket League. In an ACA survey almost half of Australia's state and national representatives said they would consider early retirement to take up a place in the lucrative tournaments and Marsh said both competitions were "good for cricket".

"Currently they are competing and with competition comes the inevitable split in the game that we are now seeing," he said. "The positions adopted by the boards for the IPL and ICL are counter-productive to the future health of the game."

Marsh said it was only a matter of time before the "potentially unreasonable restraints of trade" were legally challenged. "Where the ICL is concerned, players are being forced to choose between it and authorised cricket," he said. Jason Gillespie, Matthew Elliott, Michael Kasprowicz and Jimmy Maher avoided potential bans for joining the ICL by resigning from their local duties towards the end of the 2007-08 season.

"With IPL, players are being put into positions where if they want to retire from international cricket to play IPL, a body with which they no longer have a contractual relationship - ie Cricket Australia - may or may not allow them to play in this competition for up to two years post retirement," Marsh said. "Whilst these restrictions will no doubt de-motivate some players from joining the ICL or retiring early to play IPL, others will simply see the ICL as a more attractive option, free of contrived and unlawful restrictions. This in turn may lead to the rise of further unauthorised leagues that these players can play in throughout each year."