The cricketing landscape has seen a massive shift with players getting more drawn towards playing T20 leagues than representing their respective countries. It has been seen in the recent past that some of the big wigs of cricket have increased their participation and have started prioritising T20 leagues over their country, the reason being the lucrative offers and big bucks which the franchises are paying them.
Meanwhile, England Test head coach Brendon McCullum has a say on the paradigm shift in the cricketing arena. McCullum said that cricket boards are ‘naive’ if they think players will turn down tempting offers from T20 League's franchises to play for their respective countries.
McCullum have himself played many T20 leagues including Indian Premier League (IPL) and Big Bash League (BBL) before retiring from all forms of cricket. But now the former New Zealand skipper is serving England as a Test coach and has played an instrumental role in turning the fortunes of England's Test team alongside Ben Stokes.
“In the end, the game is going in a different direction. The last few years, there's been a shifting of the sand somewhat around international cricket and we'd be completely naive to think that players would turn down huge amounts of money on long-term contracts for a lot less work in these T20 leagues because they should be playing international cricket,” McCullum told Sen Radio.
"Those days are fast approaching to be over," added McCullum.
McCullum relinquished Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) head coach job as he was offered the job assume the coaching responsibility for England's Test team.
The 41-year-old has an advised the respective cricketing boards to find a solution to this problem as it won't set a good precedent going ahead with top players neglecting international cricket to play only in T20 leagues.
"So, what you've got to do is you've got to work with these players, you got to work with these leagues and try and allow ideally players to have their cake and eat it too because you want your best players playing (international cricket). It's not good enough to say. You know what if they don't want to play international cricket for us, then bugger them... we'll move on and find someone different because as a spectator, you want to see the best players in the world representing their countries," he said.
"I think you've got to work with them and that's something which we'll be challenged with," he added.
"The thing from our point of view is how do we ensure that when that decision (to play in T20 leagues for country) comes, they're thinking about how great of a time they have representing the England Test side," McCullum said.
"How much fun they've had, how much those experiences which they've been able to get in an England shirt is so great that they are prepared to continue to put their yards and even though it might not be as financially viable as some of the other leagues," he concluded.
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