Cricket stars could need permission to play for Australia under new Indian Premier League deals

Several of Australia’s top cricketers, including Test captains Pat Cummins and Steve Smith, may soon be required to seek clearance from their Indian Premier League (IPL) teams before playing for their countries.

Proposed sweeping changes to the structure of the IPL and how players are signed would mark the most profound change in the sport since the launch of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket.

IPL conglomerates are trying to sign cricketers for multi-tournament deals worth up to $7.5 million, disrupting the global cricket economy.

Neil Maxwell, one of Australia’s most influential players’ agents, said players in the next phase of the IPL revolution would request certificates of no objection from their clubs.

“It’s right around the corner and it’s happening,” he told the The Sydney Morning Herald.

‘The best Australian players who are consistently the best in the world over a number of years earn about $2.3 million from Australian cricket and play 12 months a year to achieve that. The math doesn’t work.’

Australian skipper Pat Cummins may have to seek permission from his IPL franchise to run his country in the future

After World Cups in India and the US this year and next, 2025 looms as the year Australian players face deals to represent Indian brands in multiple competitions – which would go against Cricket Australia’s traditional contract system.

Offers are already on the table for some Australian whiteball players.

Typically, these are deals for three tournaments worth at least $750,000 for the leagues of the UAE or South Africa, plus the Caribbean Premier League and the fledgling Major League Cricket tournament in the United States.

Much larger bundles – as much as $7.5 million – would be on the table for players already tied to IPL franchises.

The franchise model will also shake up the Sheffield Shield, with promising young players being offered deals from Indian brands that the Australian state system cannot match.

Test cricket’s future is threatened by the IPL’s plans for expansion and global franchises

Young players like Tim David could make a lot more money from the new IPL franchise deals than they could toil in Australia’s state cricket

The IPL clubs buy their players through a public auction and cannot recruit them directly.

Franchises, however, indicate to players that if they sign for other teams around the world owned by the same interests, they will give priority to those players in the IPL auction.

Former Australian player Shane Watson, who joined the inaugural IPL in 2008, is still involved with the Delhi Capitals along with Ricky Ponting and is also president of the Australian Cricketers’ Association, the union representing local players.

He sees the crossing point quickly approaching.

“It’s really accelerated around the big IPL owners who are just buying franchises in different leagues and then looking for a pool of players to draw from to fill their teams, and looking at an overarching contract,” Watson said.

‘The ultimate is of course Test cricket and international cricket, but unfortunately, as you see how Test cricket is now, the priority for Test cricket seems to be in only three countries: India, Australia and England.

“But you can see that for other countries it’s not a priority for their young and incredibly talented cricketers to come through. The priority is to develop their game in short form to play for franchises around the world.”

Former Australian cricketer Shane Watson works in the IPL and said the crossroads between global limited overs cricket and Test cricket is fast approaching

Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley believes having more Aussies in the IPL is a good reflection of Australia’s development trajectories

Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley is not threatened by the new model and says Cricket Australia will continue to make concessions to allow as many players as possible to participate in the IPL.

“There is a fairly well established system in place and the window in the calendar clearly allows us to say with great confidence that we want our players to play in the IPL,” said Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley.

‘Really for us, a measure of how well our high-performance systems work is how many Australians play in the IPL and now the WPL [the new Women’s Premier League].’