Dance anthems blared, Mojito glasses clinked and complimentary KFC was in garishly plentiful supply as Australian cricket grasped for a semblance of edginess at the BBL launch
Daniel Brettig28-Jul-2011Dance anthems blared, Mojito glasses clinked and complimentary KFC was in plentiful supply as Australian cricket grasped for a semblance of edginess at the launch of the Twenty20 Big Bash League.Held at Carriageworks, a venue in Sydney’s inner west that is more synonymous with hip-hop festivals and art exhibitions, the event brought together a vast array of cricketers, sponsors, media and various other hangers-on.Some mixed better than others, as the old world tried to seek relevance and context in the new. Like the competition it launched, the night was an effort to broaden cricket, something achieved in a sartorial sense at least by the stipulation that no ties were to be worn by any of the male guests.Amid the mess, noise and a humdrum DJ set by a minor Australian celebrity, Erin McNaught, there was room for pondering about what it all meant. Cricket Australia are relentlessly hopeful about building the game’s audience and revenue streams, while the newly-anointed captains did their bit by attempting to manufacture on-stage rivalries between teams that are underpinned by market research rather than history.The absence of the Australian Test captain, Michael Clarke, told another story. Clarke has decided that he cannot take part in the BBL if he wants to devote his full attention to international cricket, a view shared by another absentee, Mitchell Johnson. One of Australia’s pace bowling hopes for the forthcoming Test match schedule is Trent Copeland, but he is on an underwhelming salary due to his lack of suitability for the highly limited tactical manoeuvres of T20.One of the wiser voices in the room was that of Marcus North, the former Australian batsman and West Australian captain, who can now add the leadership of the Perth Scorchers to his CV. He expresses no great love for T20 as a batsman, saying “I’m not one of those players who is going to be attracted to playing T20 cricket around the world, that’s probably not my style of the game”. But North is enthusiastic about the chance to attract new followers, and to potentially build club culture in a game whose loyalties have always been international and provincial in nature.”I think you’ll still get your cricket purists, but you get a completely different audience on top of that as well,” North told ESPNcricinfo. “We see families, people who’ve never really come to watch cricket or be interested in cricket, but love to be there and enjoy the occasion, enjoy the atmosphere.”You don’t have to go to a T20 game and have to watch every ball, you’re there with your friends, enjoying the occasion, enjoying the spectacle of being with friends and a great atmosphere with a full stadium. So it really broadens the viewers that watch this format of the game. I think it’s developed over the last few years, we’ve seen how successful it has been in India, and it’s been a bit of a success in Australia already. I think this takes it to a new level and will put T20 on the map in Australian cricket.”The map North speaks of is now dotted with domestic competitions and matches across three formats, seemingly diluting what was once a helpfully uncluttered pathway from grade cricket to Test matches via the Sheffield Shield battles between the states. Thinking over the question of what this will do to twist the ambitions of young players, North cannot be sure that ensuing generations will still find the prospect of a Test cap quite so alluring as that of a fat cheque.”It’s a good question,” North said. “It’s a learning curve, a bit of unknown what we’re dealing with at the moment, it has been quite public that it’s a little controversial the way the contract system has worked this year for domestic players. It has been talked about but it is a learning curve, this is a new competition, it’s influenced the way contracts are dealt with.”I feel if you do go speak to a lot of the cricketers around Australia, playing Test cricket and wearing the baggy green is still very, very high on their list. But it’s a hard one to answer, because I grew up in a different era to what the young guys are growing up in now. It is hard for me to comprehend striving to play for your state and not having that ultimate ambition to represent your country.”Whether that is going to influence players, the way this T20 revolution around the world is, the amount of money that’s being thrown, whether that’s going to influence the way the younger generation are going to look at representing Test cricket being their ultimate priority, is a question to ask the young guys. I certainly hope not, but hopefully there’s a balance, and the tradition and history of representing Australia with the baggy green continues to live strong.”A note of optimism can be found in the story of Dave Warner, whose emergence in 2011 as a batsman of Test match potential has illustrated that international cricket can still provide the most powerful attraction for a cricketer rolling around in T20 cash. It is a point of welcome irony that Warner has been the poster-boy for Mike McKenna, CA’s head of marketing and the BBL project owner, as an exemplar of the sort of player who can use T20 to become a star.Warner has now turned the concept around by allying the attention he gained through T20 with his own drive and ambition to play Test cricket. After belatedly breaking into the New South Wales Shield XI, Warner has been eye-catching for Australia A, helped by one of Greg Chappell’s more astute selection observations. This means McKenna may yet lose his most marketable name to the fuddy duddy old game played by men clad in white, as it competes with the BBL during the December-January holiday period.”He was the first player to go against the grain, but give credit to Dave that he’s had that perception to break, and perception is a hard thing to change, and he’s had to do that over the last couple of years,” North said. “He’s always been quite open and honest about wanting to play first-class cricket for NSW and to play for Australia and wear the baggy green.”It’s taken him a while but he’s starting to put the performances together. We saw how well he did perform in first-class cricket last year for NSW, and he’s been arguably the batter of the tour on the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe, so he’s making the right noises and putting his foot forward. That’s credit to Dave Warner, it isn’t easy to break perception and he’s put the work in that’s needed to adjust his game to make him able to play first-class cricket. So he’s an example of the new generation that’s been pretty focused on T20 but he’s been able to adapt his game.”Warner’s evolution, and the emergence of the spin bowler Nathan Lyon, has shown that T20 can add to the pool of Australian Test cricketers as much as it takes away. This much was cause for optimism, even as the 9pm closure of the Carriageworks bar reminded all present that CA are gambling on the BBL with a dwindling supply of chips.