Too much emphasis on money, T20 — Turner

Glenn Turner
Glenn Turner
New Zealand cricket great Glenn Turner hopes the game he loves will return to its roots when the world wins its battle with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 72-year-old former opener has collaborated with experienced sports journalist and author Lynn McConnell for his fifth book — Cricket’s Global Warming.

It went on sale this week and it addresses the impact of increasing commercialisation which the co-authors argue is at odds with the needs of the game on the whole.

It was written before there was widespread awareness how bad the pandemic would get. But Turner feels the impact of the virus presents the sport with an opportunity to review its direction.

The game has become too focused on money, the players too entitled and the market has been saturated to the point people are being turned off by the game, he argues.

‘‘What I think is there is too much international cricket and way too much twenty20,’’ Turner said.

‘‘That could be reduced and the players’ salaries could be reduced in accordance with that.

‘‘And cricket could get back to being a special occasion, rather than another yawn.

‘‘It is happening in a lot of sports now where greed has come in. And what I’ve found in cricket is the gap between the [leading players and the rest] is so, so vast.

‘‘Players are entitled to make choices about what they want to do and, sadly, some of them are taking off to play in twenty20 leagues and finishing with New Zealand Cricket earlier than they otherwise would have.

‘‘That is their choice but what is happening is the [nationally] contracted players are taking the lion’s share of the money and then are not available to play for New Zealand at various times because they are getting an injury or something sorted out so they are fit for the IPL.

‘‘Greed has taken off and entitlement, as we have seen across society, has taken over as well.

‘‘And it is happening in cricket.

‘‘All of that needs another look and the best way to do it is reduce some of the international fixtures and get twenty20 cricket by the scruff of the neck and don’t let it dominate everything else.’’

Turner feels the ICC has allowed T20 to hijack the game.

‘‘One of the theories is it is bringing in the money and that is what we want, and it will encourage more people who weren’t interested in cricket to come into cricket.

‘‘But if you encourage people to go along to a junk food takeaway, can you expect them to graduate to fine dining? Hardly. And that is certainly showing to be the case.’’

Other forms of cricket are being designed around T20 leagues, particularly the IPL, and that is having a detrimental impact on the game.

If you have finally got over the controversial result from last year’s World Cup then you might want to just skim the first chapter.

England was awarded victory against New Zealand on a boundary countback, following a tied match and a tied super over.

Turner felt a tie was a ‘‘dream result’’ and the title should have been shared.

‘‘Both groups of supporters over a beer later would have said, ‘Yeah, well, actually that is a fair result’.

‘‘So they had the dream result but they stuffed it up.’’

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