The proposed Southern Premier League involving teams based in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand looks increasingly unlikely to go ahead due to the crowded international calendar.
It had been hoped the Twenty20 tournament, which would involve the leading players from all three countries plus other international stars, would be held in October every year, starting from 2011.
But early discussions around the International Cricket Council’s post-2012 Future Tours Programme (FTP) has made the three countries realise that no natural window exists for the tournament.
“The problem that we’ve had is trying to find space. We all know that there is a lot of international cricket,” said New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan.
“We’ve got a lot of international cricket events like the World Twenty20. There’s the World Cup and then there is the Indian Premier League which takes place in April-May every year.”
“It is becoming increasingly apparent that if we want to maintain the current level of international cricket finding a space in October just appears to be really, really difficult,” he told Radio Sport.
“It’s not to say it’s impossible, but at this stage it’s looking extremely difficult.”
He continued: “We can’t flog our top players into the ground, that doesn’t help anyone, and we’re also really conscience of not wanting to saturate the market with too much cricket.”
Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations chief executive Tim May has suggested that the FTP needs to be reworked to reduce the number of international fixtures which would allow for more franchise-based competitions such as the IPL which attracts international players.
But Vaughan does not believe that would best serve the interests of New Zealand cricket.
“At the moment New Zealand Cricket supports the game in this country through the income that comes from our national team playing,” he said.
“When the Black Caps play at home we derive a significant amount of our revenue as we do when they play in ICC events like the World Twenty20.”
“To cut international playing commitments would mean a significant financial downside to the sport in this country.”
“I don’t think cricket is ready to move (away from country versus country to club-based competitions) just at the moment, maybe in 10 years time that may be something that needs to be considered.”
“But for the next period of time we want to preserve a significant amount of international country versus country cricket and that’s what is going to be able to support the game all the way through to the grass roots in New Zealand.”
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