Star power
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The year 2019 changed Ben Stokes’s life forever and catapulted him to the top of British sport. Stokes is now the biggest name in English cricket and arguably second to Virat Kohli as the world game’s most recognisable star.
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Stokes’s heroics at Headingley and in the World Cup final were gold dust not just for his team, but for the beleaguered England and Wales Cricket Board, which now has a marketable player who cuts through to a non-cricket audience, a crucial factor as it prepares to launch the Hundred. It would not be a huge surprise if Stokes was Test captain by the end of the year, too, as long as he keeps his nose clean off the field.
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David Warner remains the sport’s love-to-hate figure and, along with Steve Smith, he will be playing in the Hundred. Those two are the biggest draw cards from overseas in the absence of the Indian players, who are not allowed to play in foreign leagues.
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Hope is growing that will change with Sourav Ganguly taking over as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Ganguly will surely see the logic in his players gaining experience of overseas conditions, and Kohli is known to favour playing outside India because he wants to keep his country top of the rankings.
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Generational change is looming in India, with MS Dhoni’s time at the top coming to an end. He has been warned he has to play well in the Indian Premier League in March to be in contention for a place in India’s Twenty20 World Cup squad, and Kohli is grooming Rishabh Pant to take over. Dhoni was the world’s highest-paid cricketer for a decade – before Kohli’s emergence – and, if he retires fully in 2020, the game will have lost one of its global stars.
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Strength in depth
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The Cricketer magazine ran a cover story in December headlined “The Great Globalising Force”, arguing that cricket has a greater reach now, thanks to Twenty20, than at any time before in its long history.
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Test cricket is struggling, of course it is, but Twenty20 leagues are everywhere. The Cricketer counted 14 serious leagues around the world, 12 of them franchise competitions that tinker with the game’s format even further.
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The Twenty20 World Cup in October will include Oman, Papua New Guinea, Netherlands and Namibia (although they still have to play another round before reaching the Super 12 draw), and Nepal are emerging, too. There are 31 million people born in India or of Indian descent living overseas and they are spreading a love of Twenty20 cricket. The International Cricket Council has also handed official Twenty20 status to all 105 of its members as it sees the shortest format of the game as the easiest way to broaden cricket’s appeal.
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Many of those nations are never going to compete against England or Australia, but there will be some who emulate Afghanistan and become a force.
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Among the more recognised nations, 2020 will be a huge year for Pakistan as they return to play in their home country. Wasim Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board’s chief executive, has said playing in the UAE is now “off the table” for his country and a number of teams are expected to play in Pakistan next year. In March, the Pakistan Super League will be played in Pakistan in its entirety for the first time and Khan hopes the overseas players enjoy the tournament so much they spread the word among fellow professionals reluctant to visit the country (mainly English and Australians).
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But back to that man Kohli. He remains the most important figure in cricket, especially those who care about Test cricket. Kohli is obsessed with records and he loves Test cricket. He was the driving force behind India playing a pink-ball Test against Bangladesh in November and has called for his board to market Tests in the same way they do one-day internationals to ensure the game’s survival, a vital move given Asian broadcasters now pour all their money into the IPL. He has also suggested alternate home and away series to make the Test championship fairer and to give the fixture list some sort of sense.
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Biggest off-field headache
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For all that reducing Tests to four days has dominated the news agenda in recent days, it is corruption which will dominate the thoughts of the authorities.
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Shakib Al Hasan’s 12-month ban brought into focus the fact it is not just poorly paid cricketers from associate nations who are seen as an easy targets for bookies. Shakib is said to earn more than $20 million per year, but still landed in trouble for failing to report approaches. Under Alex Marshall, the British former chief constable, the ICC is no longer toothless in the fight against corruption, but it is impossible for his department to keep pace with the mushrooming of Twenty20.
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Test crowds outside England and Australia continue to diminish, particularly if the Barmy Army are not there to swell numbers. Attendances at England’s final two Tests in South Africa – at Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg – are likely to be poor and, if English tourists are scared to go to Sri Lanka in March, then that series will be played at deserted grounds. New Zealand have the right idea of playing Test cricket at boutique venues where a crowd of 5,000 fills enough seats to make it look full.
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English cricket has to look at how it markets the women’s game. It is a massive missed opportunity that England women have not played at a Test ground at home since selling out the World Cup final in 2017. Playing at small, county grounds is fine most of the time, but one match a year at Lord’s or the Oval, and making those games a real occasion, is not too much to ask.
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Hottest ticket of 2020
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Keep an eye on March 8. The Melbourne Cricket Ground holds 100,000 and the organisers of the women’s Twenty20 World Cup have vowed to fill it for the final. They have booked Katy Perry in expectation of a sell-out, and if they do it will be by far the biggest crowd for a women’s match.
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Australia look dead certs to reach the final. Playing England would be a humdinger, but for the growth of the women’s game would it be better if India were to reach the final and beat Australia? Who knows, a women’s IPL might then become a reality. Melbourne will be the scene of another Twenty20 World Cup final, on Nov 15, when the men’s competition reaches its finale. Eoin Morgan’s England side reached the final four years ago and lost a nail-biter. They know now how to hold their nerve on the big day after this year’s gripping World Cup final win.
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One prediction for 2020
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The Hundred will be a success. Sky and the BBC have invested too much for the new format to fail. Having eight matches on the BBC live for the first time in two decades is huge. The corporation’s reach will give the ECB the perfect vehicle for selling tickets and Sky is committed to making it work. However, one thing is certain. It will not help England’s Test cricket. England’s players go from playing in the opening rounds of the Hundred straight into a Test against Pakistan to face their swing bowlers. It might be a quick game.
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