The former Sri Lanka cricketer, Chaminda Vaas has shared his thoughts on “ Why cricketers are prioritizing franchise cricket over their country?
Over the past couple of years, a notable trend has emerged in cricket, where many players have chosen to forgo central contracts offered by their national cricket boards. Instead, they’ve opted to ink agreements with diverse franchises worldwide. This shift allows cricketers to significantly augment their earnings compared to what they receive through central contracts. Additionally, it provides them the flexibility to manage their workload as required.
However, this trend has brought about a challenge. Various franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL), for instance, have extended multi-year contracts to players from different countries. This situation potentially poses a dilemma for the future of international cricket. To address this concern, cricket boards worldwide are in need of effective solutions to curtail this practice.
Chaminda Vaas, the former Sri Lankan cricketer, proposes a potential solution. He suggests that if all cricket boards collectively increase match fees, it could contribute to resolving this issue. This adjustment in compensation could potentially mitigate the lure of franchise deals and motivate players to prioritize international commitments.
“T20 cricket has been becoming commercialised and most of the players will benefit from it financially and taking care of them and it’s up to all the cricket boards to find a solution like you know increasing their match payment. If you can do that, I’m pretty sure that the boys will choose which format they have to play and try to sustain that,” Vaas said in an exclusive chat with News18.
Chaminda Vaas Dives Deep into LPL’s Influence on Sri Lankan Cricket Future
Vaas is of the opinion that the Lanka Premier League is proving to be highly beneficial for local players by offering them valuable exposure, a resource that holds great significance for their future prospects. He further emphasized that the tournament’s quality is on an upward trajectory, indicating an improvement that will directly contribute to the players’ growth and development.
“Well, it’s (LPL) slowly getting better. We need to have good players from overseas. People like Babar (Azam) and there are quite a few from Australia and it’s good to have all the foreign cricketers and you know playing competitive cricket. A lot of Sri Lankan youngsters can learn from them and even Sri Lanka cricket will go up. There are quite a few guys playing in different leagues but when it comes to Sri Lanka when they play with them with the other players, they can learn so much from them too,” Vaas further added.
