The Indian Premier League, Big Bash League, Caribbean Premier League and Pakistan Super League are some of the best T20 leagues in the world.
New Delhi: Due to the rapid rise of T20 cricket around the world, former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden felt that it will be increasingly difficult for players to play consistently in all three formats of the game in near future.
After the inception of T20 World Cup in 2007, several franchise leagues have grown like mushrooms globally with Indian Premier League, Big Bash League, Caribbean Premier League, Pakistan Super League making a name for it.
The cricketer-turned-commentator felt due to high volume of T20 cricket, it is also impossible for the cricketers to be available for all three formats and also questions the future one-dayers.
“The time of three-format players is shortly coming to an end. I would challenge the game around whether those formats are even viable anymore,” Hayden said on Friday on the sidelines of an event.
“It seems to me there is great enthusiasm still to play Test cricket and World Test Championship is a good example of that. Otherwise I see lot of T20 cricket being played.” Due to the lucrative nature of the global franchise leagues, several cricketers are giving up national contracts to play around the world.
The 51-year-old doesn’t blame the players. “It is inevitable that kids of tomorrow they want to play sport, they want to play franchise cricket,” added Hayden who played in IPL for three years and also represented Australia in two T20 World Cups.
“We have seen number of players especially from marginalised communities, cricketers from West Indies for example, they are getting very active in other sports and poached to other sports because of their magnificent athletic ability. The great fall from grace from the beautiful sides of the 80s.
“Someone like Nicholas Pooran for example. Has he really got any interest in playing Test match cricket? Before him Dwayne Bravo played bit of Test cricket but mostly played franchise cricket all over the world.
“There are hundreds of example like that. From Australia, someone like David Warner. Is he going to be focussed on Test cricket now or is he going to play remainder of his career (in T20s). It is always going to be challenging where there is enormous amount of money to be made. It is going to be happen and all of it should be embraced,” he added.
