Indian Billionaire to try launch rebel league?

[happy_eagle]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-...racts-rebel-cricket-lea/6436692?section=sport

Michael Clarke and David Warner are reportedly being targeted by an Indian conglomerate that wants to offer the Australian cricket stars $50 million contracts to take part in a new rebel league that will rival the world governing body.

It's all good to put these kinds of offers on the table, but you'd also have to actually pay them the money (which has been a problem in the past with the ICL)

Do we expect this to gain any momentum?

On a side note, I do find it pretty concerning the amount of money that Indian Cricket seem to have, considering large portions of the country live in poverty. Priorities perhaps

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Who are the Essel Group?
The Essel Group is a multi-billion pound Indian conglomerate owned by a 64-year-old media tycoon Subhash Chandra, of which the TV broadcaster Zee Entertainment is its most famous brand.

Chandra, having been previously frustrated by Zee’s failure to secure the lucrative television rights to international and domestic cricket in India, set up the Indian Cricket League in 2007, a breakaway nine-team franchise Twenty20 tournament that predated the ongoing and official Indian Premier League. The ICL’s failure to be recognised by the International Cricket Council and national boards gave the competition “rebel” status, which created problems for players upon returning to official cricket. The tournament, whose biggest-named players were at the ends of their careers, collapsed after two seasons, with reports of unpaid wages and alleged match-fixing having emerged since.

Full story: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/apr/28/cricket-breakaway-essel-group-icc-investigation

So it sounds to me like it's really about TV like Kerry Packer and World Series Cricket 800 years ago.

"Good for the players" and "big bad ICC" will be the PR strategy.

 

[The_Reaper]

Sound to me that if you're paying Michael Clarke $50 million to play Twenty20 cricket you're incredibly desperate and have no chance of succeeding

 

[Smiling Buddha]

let them do this

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Sound to me that if you're paying Michael Clarke $50 million to play Twenty20 cricket you're incredibly desperate and have no chance of succeeding

Think of it as a downpayment for getting Indian TV rights 3 years from now.

 

[Torz]

Kind of weird given the ICC is practically India already.

 

[The_Reaper]

Think of it as a downpayment for getting Indian TV rights 3 years from now.

Why should I?

They won't get the Indian tv rights out of this.

If they're paying Clarke 50 million they don't have any big Indian drawcards.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

They won't get the Indian tv rights out of this.

Wanting a piece of the action is why they're doing it.

 

[The_Reaper]

Wanting a piece of the action is why they're doing it.

And it won't work.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Worked for Packer and Rupert Murdoch in rugby league.

 

[happy_eagle]

If you were a player, you'd want a pretty big downpayment first, given the history with players not being paid

http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket...y-of-rebel-plans/story-e6frf3g3-1227329793146

 

[Oaktree]

I think T20 cricket is already saturated enough for a rebel league to generate any real interest.

The money might be a good carrot but it's very unlikely a sustainable league could realistically eventuate.

 

[The_Reaper]

Worked for Packer and Rupert Murdoch in rugby league.

Didn't work for the ICL a few years back.

The BCCI will keep it's big stars and Warner can probably expect to earn near $50 million over the next decade as an Australian international + IPL.

When the IPL will keep Kohli, Sharma, Rahane etc why would Indians change to this rebel league?

 

[happy_eagle]

It won't work because the proposed rebel league is domestic based
At least with Packers world series, players were still representing their country in a way.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Didn't work for the ICL a few years back.

The BCCI will keep it's big stars and Warner can probably expect to earn near $50 million over the next decade as an Australian international + IPL.

When the IPL will keep Kohli, Sharma, Rahane etc why would Indians change to this rebel league?

I can't predict the future.

 

[The_Reaper]

I can't predict the future.

You can make pretty reasonable predictions though.

Nothing points to this succeeding.

Just as the ICL (ran by the same guys) failed

 

[Bomberboyokay]

 

[The_Reaper]

Essel's track record in cricket is poor, having still failed to pay out $2m in wages to players including Australians from the shortlived Indian Cricket League it ran from 2007 to 2009.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket...new-rebel-cricket-league-20150430-1mwvad.html

I'm sure we can trust them to fork out the $50 million

 

[Hellgood]

Would say it will be a matter of once bitten, twice shy for the players.

Not that a shake up of the ICC would be a bad thing.

 

[frankrizzo]

Seen lots of comparisons to the packer times in the media but that just doesn't wash, in those times packer swooped on a whole generation of talented yet vastly underpaid and unappreciated(by the board not the fans) stars but our current lot aren't exactly that, they are already well paid superstars.

Hard to see this new group getting aussie players in their prime to sign on and leave what is a stable platform where they are already highly paid and protected.

 

[The Speaker]

There's more to this than a rival to the IPL, as easy as it is to focus on such a thing.

Essel Group owns Zee Media. Zee Media owns Ten Sports, who have the cricket rights in five of the ten Test playing nations.

Essel has registered companies in a number of nations that seem like cricket boards.

Essel has released a statement criticising cricket for only having reach in Commonwealth countries historically.

Tim Wigmore, lead Associate cricket writer, began talking up the possibility of a breakaway cricket council for Associates about a month after the World Cup.

 

[Slax]

The ICC needs a clean out, I can't work out why Afghanistan and Ireland haven't been given test status.

 

[ioppolo]

Cricket is ruined. Vale the game as we know it.

 

[Hellgood]

Cricket is ruined. Vale the game as we know it.

What a ridiculous statement.

 

[PrideOf]

Essel has released a statement criticising cricket for only having reach in Commonwealth countries historically.

Lulza. Because it's well documented just how much global influence India has.