‘A little bit dangerous,’ says Adam Gilchrist on IPL’s monopolisation of global cricket

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is making its presence felt in global cricket with multiple franchise owners buying stakes in other upcoming T20 Leagues.

All six teams in the newly-announced Cricket South Africa (CSA) T20 league were bought by IPL franchise owners.

The upcoming International League T20 (ILT20), managed by the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB), has seen an influx of IPL-owned promoters.

Former Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist has sounded alarm bells for all boards seeing the recent trend of IPL dominance.

With David Warner reportedly skipping the Big Bash League this season for cash-rich ILT20, Gilchrist has warned Cricket Australia (CA) about not allowing players to go down this path.

"I think it would almost be commercial suicide for them (Cricket Australia) to allow a player like him (Warner) to go head-to-head up against their own competition.

"They can't force David Warner to play in the BBL, I understand that, but to let him then go off -- or another player, let's not single out Warner because there will be other players on the radar -- it's all part of this global dominance that these IPL franchises are starting to create given they own a number of teams in the Caribbean Premier League.

"They own all six teams I believe in the new South African tournament that's coming up, which will be locking horns for commercial space and airtime with the Big Bash (League).

"It's getting a little bit dangerous the grip that it's having to monopolise that ownership and the ownership of the players and their talents and where they can and can't play,” Gilchrist told SEN. 

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The former World Cup-winner also pointed out that Warner’s decision should not be quizzed because he has created that market for himself and has given his best to Australian cricket over the years.

"David Warner, again, using him as an example, we can't question his commitment to Australian cricket over the years, he's carved out one of the great careers. If he rides off into the sunset and says, 'Sorry Australian cricket, I'm going to become a gun for hire for my Indian franchise team in various tournaments' you can't question him on that, that's his prerogative and he's done everything he needs to get the profile and get that market value,” he explained.

However, the 50-year-old is concerned about younger players following this trend of picking league cricket over domestic cricket in the future.

"It's the new younger player coming in that starts to make those noises where it'll be really challenging. Perhaps it's the first example where David Warner doesn't sign a contract with Cricket Australia at all, he just plays for a match fee.

"He goes and plays whatever he wants but says, 'I'm available for every Test match, for every one-day international and every T20 international' by way of example, I'll be there for you in national colours. But other than that, I'm going to play my club, my franchise cricket, wherever I want to knowing that none of those big tournaments will be clashing with international cricket," he concluded.

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