Alex Powell: There are too many Cricket World Cups and it’s killing the game

Alex Powell is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.

OPINION

If you’re looking at this
year’s Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA and thinking “another one?!”, you’re not alone.

On Saturday morning, when the Black Caps face Afghanistan in Guyana, only 206 days will have passed since New Zealand’s semifinal defeat to India in last year’s 50-over World Cup.

That match took place 371 days after New Zealand’s semifinal loss to Pakistan at the 2022 T20 World Cup, which itself came a mere 359 days after the Black Caps were beaten by Australia in the final of the 2021 edition.

While it’s important to note cricket’s global calendar is conflated by three different formats, there has still been at the very least one global event in each of the past four years.

That’s not to mention 2023 either, when a World Test Championship final was also in the mix with a 50-over World Cup, even if it was the culmination of a two-year cycle.

That’s not going to change either. Until 2031, there will be at least world event every year in one form or another for cricket fans to get their heads around.

While on the surface, fans can celebrate the chance to see their side compete for silverware at the highest level, surely this is doing more harm than good.

As cricket moves closer and closer to an outright split between club and country, given the vast sums of money available for players on the T20 circuit, ramming the calendar full of events that are becoming meaningless is no way to fix it.

And while this year’s tournament has expanded to 20 teams and even moved into the final frontier of the USA, that reality doesn’t hide the fact that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is milking this cow for all it has, while it still can.

It seems like it’s only a matter of time before T20 cricket, now controlled mostly by the Indian Premier League sides, chooses to flick a switch that will almost certainly end international cricket as we know it, and move to a franchise system similar to that of basketball’s NBA.

And with that eventuality acknowledged, the best thing the ICC can do is to provide meaning to what’s already here, rather than dilute the international game more than is already the case.

The biggest risk that tournament after tournament plays here is that they’ll only hold the value that is assigned to them.

If players can look at a World Cup, be it 50 or 20 overs, and know there’s another one around the corner, surely it’s an easier decision to be able to pick and choose when they’re available.

Take England’s Ben Stokes. After winning the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, he ended his 50-over retirement for last year’s tournament in India, only to rule himself out of this year’s edition in the West Indies and USA.

In what other sport would a player want to flip back and forth between available and unavailable for a pinnacle event?

For now, the Black Caps at the very least seem to be on board.

“Any chance you get to represent New Zealand, our country, is a real privilege and real honour,” Tim Southee said before facing Pakistan earlier this year.

“Any world event you get to go to is a special time to be part of a side. I’ve been to a number over the years, they’re all very special.

“The ones you cherish are world events where you get to test yourself as a side on the world stage, which we’ve done pretty well in the last number of world events.”

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is largely regarded as one of the best to grace the game, after what he achieved in north London during his time with the Gunners.

But that reputation could seriously be at risk, given his involvement in a proposal to Fifa that would see the Football World Cup – one of, if not the biggest sporting events on the planet – played every two years, as opposed to four.

If football, known to be among the most corrupt of codes at an administrative level, can work out that a World Cup every two years is a bad thing, why can’t cricket?

For a sport facing a battle with itself to remain relevant at the international level, oversaturating the pinnacle with event after event, year after year won’t go any way to knocking franchise leagues out of top spot.

In the meantime, don’t be too sad if the Black Caps can’t get over the line at this year’s T20 World Cup – there’s a Champions Trophy event kicking off in February 2025.