According to Brad Hogg, Players who skip national duty to play in T20 leagues will be a huge problem!
According to Brad Hogg, Players who skip national duty: Brad Hogg, a former Australian cricketer, has said that if players start to prefer T20 leagues to international cricket, it will be very hard for the sport to grow in those countries. Hogg noted that these kinds of decisions would affect not only their international games but also their games at the local level.
The money vs. country debate has been going on for a few years now. This is because T20 tournaments, especially the Indian Premier League or IPML, are becoming more and more popular. South Africa’s decision to skip the series against Australia so they could focus on their own T20 league has also raised a lot of questions about the future of international cricket.
What Hogg said about Babar Azam
Hogg said, using Babar Azam as an example, that the young players will lose hope if they don’t see the Pakistan captain playing for the national team but instead in a T20 league. Hogg gave his opinion on the hot topic and said that international cricket and some countries that play cricket would face some hard times in the future.
Hogg on his YouTube Channel
He said this on his YouTube channel:
“This (players skipping national duty for T20 leagues) will be a huge issue in the development of cricket in these regions. Young kids want to see their heroes and if they are not playing for their national team, that’s going to drop off into grassroots cricket.”
“We won’t see the development of young players coming through. Just imagine if Babar Azam was playing T20 tournaments all around the world and not playing for Pakistan,” he said.
“The players there get remunerated quite well” – Brad Hogg
Hogg said that some boards, like the BCCI and the CA, will pay their players enough to keep them happy, but countries that can’t pay their players a lot of money will lose them to franchise tournaments around the world.
“This is a huge issue, probably not so much for Australia, India, and England, because the players there get remunerated quite well. But if you look at teams like West Indies, New Zealand, and Bangladesh, we will see top-quality players making this move, just for the high value that they are going to get,” he mentioned.
After the CSA (Cricket South Africa) and the ECB (Emirates Cricket Board) added two new T20 leagues, the argument started up again.