Day Cricket Died- MCC may join IPL
Feb 06 2010 - 16:13:12
The MCC is to consider an offer to join the IPL; that great vampire squid spectacle (apologies to Matt Taibbi) whose tentacles are squeezing the life out of all other forms of cricket. Nothing is sacred it seems. The old gods are being torn down and new ones raised to replace them. First the idea was floated that naming rights for Lord's might be sold to fund a £300 million redevelopment.
Now a group of Indian businessmen have contacted Keith Bradshaw, chief executive of the MCC, to see if the club would add cricket validity to their bid. A successful alliance would help the MCC land IPL matches and highlights the fact the club are building closer relationships with the power brokers of Indian cricket as they look to fund an ambitious programme to rebuild Lord's.
On Monday Lord's will host a press conference to confirm that Hampshire have joined teams from South Africa and the West Indies, likely to be Cape Cobras and Trinidad and Tobago, runners-up in last year's Twenty20 Champions League, as partners of IPL franchise the Rajasthan Royals.
Earlier this week that the Royals are aiming to become the world's first global franchise and part of their announcement on Monday, where their captain Shane Warne will lead the presentation, may well include details of an annual tournament at Lord's involving the Rajasthan 'family'.
Bradshaw confirmed on Friday that he had been approached by a 'number of interested parties' about fronting a tender for an IPL franchise but it appears unlikely that any deal could be struck before the bid documents are released this month.
The MCC would need to perform due diligence on any potential partners and a decision could only be made once it had been considered and approved by the club's committee. IPL chairman Lalit Modi recently claimed he had 38 parties willing to meet the staggering $225million base price and The Daily Telegraph understands a consortium from Abu Dhabi is among those forming plans for a bid.
The MCC recently signed a long-term partnership deal with the Abu Dhabi Cricket Association. The International Cricket Council confirmed on Friday that Mark Benson had retired from their elite panel of umpires following his sudden withdrawal from a Test match in Australia last December.
