Day-night Test matches could be the only way for the five-day format to survive amid the growing Twenty20 phenomenon, Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland has said. Cricket Australia have been keen on hosting Test cricket under lights for some time, provided a suitable ball can be developed, and remain confident fans would embrace the concept.

“It just might be – I’m not saying this is the case – but it just might be the only way that Test cricket stays alive,” Sutherland said. “We don’t know that, but there’s obviously pressure on Test cricket and the game.”

Twenty20 has developed so rapidly that, less than four years after the first international was played, the list of short-format events includes the IPL, ICL, Champions League, Stanford 20/20 and the ICC World Twenty20, while a new southern hemisphere tournament is also in the works. Sutherland said day-night Tests could be one way of ensuring the traditional format remained relevant in the future.

“It [Test cricket] might not always be the ultimate game,” he said. “We want it to be … but above everything I don’t want it to die. We just need to have other options. I’m not saying it’s [day-night Tests] going to happen and I’m not going to say it’ll happen everywhere. We just need to explore that possibility and understand that if it can be done then it might be a great way to protect Test cricket.”

There are practical considerations to be dealt with before Tests can be held under lights, including finding the right coloured ball and addressing the issue of extra dewy conditions. Speaking at an Australian Cricket Society lunch in Melbourne, Sutherland said it would be important to ensure nighttime Tests did not compromise the traditions of the game to an unacceptable level.

The push for day-night Tests has been sparked largely by the desire for greater television audiences. Australia is one of the few nations where Test cricket still draws consistently large crowds but the administrators are keen to boost the overall viewing numbers by making the game a more attractive television option, which they hope would be achieved with a slot in primetime. Sutherland said Twenty20 viewing patterns and attendances had changed the nature of the game.

“Cricket in itself in order to survive needs to respond to the demand for the game,” Sutherland said. “Cricket’s a very popular sport, it’s arguably the second most popular sport in the world and people watch the game all around the world, but they really watch the game properly on television when it’s played at night.

“The important thing is that we find the right balance for Test cricket to fit in with the other forms of the game. Test cricket obviously faces its own challenges in this day and age because it’s a long form of the game that’s played during the daytime, which necessarily includes playing over weekdays when not as many people can get to the matches.

“All of those things combine together to make Test cricket in a commercial sense less appealing than the other forms of the game. And it doesn’t work the same way for television and it doesn’t work the same for sponsors and other partners of the game. That’s not to say that it’s a better game or a worse game – it’s just the reality of the nature of the game.”

Live Current Media, a media company built around content and commerce destinations, announced that Global Cricket Ventures (GCV), a joint venture between Live Current and NetlinkBlue Holding, a consulting, technology and outsourcing services firm, has reached an agreement to build, manage and monetize the official website of the Champions League Twenty20 (Champions League) for a period of 10 years.

The official website of the Champions League will offer cricket fans an enriched digital experience featuring video highlights, a live video scoreboard, mobile content as well as official photographs, press releases, player interviews, schedules, statistics and newsletters. Revenues generated from the website will be split evenly between GCV and the Champions League.

The inaugural Champions League Twenty20 will be held in India from December 3-10 this year and will include the reigning winners and runners-up from the domestic Twenty20 competitions in India, Australia and South Africa, as well as the reigning Twenty20 champions from Pakistan and England who will compete for T20 supremacy and $6 million prize money. The tournament will be produced and broadcast by ESPN Star Sports who in September paid close to $1 billion to secure the media and commercial rights of the league for 10 years. This investment represents the most lucrative rights contract ever agreed in the sport of cricket on a per-game basis.

Mark Melville, Chief Corporate Development Officer, Live Current and acting CEO, Global Cricket Ventures, said, “We are very fortunate to have obtained the rights to the official website of the Champions League Twenty20, one of the most exciting new sporting events in the world. This is another key milestone for our cricket media business and we look forward to working with the Champions League to create an unrivaled user experience and commercial success. If you factor in our digital and mobile rights to Indian cricket through our agreements with the BCCI and the IPL we have an unrivaled portfolio of digital rights that places GCV in a unique position to take advantage of the massive growth of cricket and the T20 format globally.”

When Chris Gayle and Kevin Pietersen walk out for the coin toss next Saturday, their teams will be competing for the richest prize in cricketing history – US$20 million – to win the inaugural Stanford 20/20 event.

Bankrolled by Texan billionaire Allen Stanford, England and a West Indies all-star team called the Stanford Superstars will play a Twenty20 match with each winning player receiving $1 million for about three hours work – and the losers getting nothing.

Lance Gibbs, the former West Indies offspinner who manages the Superstars, is confident his team will be in the money.

“I think we will win it. We should be able to beat England,” Gibbs said. “I’ve never been on a team as a manager which has lost and I think that will continue.”

After a period of uncertainty because of a legal challenge by a sponsor of the West Indies Cricket Board over branding and commercial rights, the event has generated huge spectator interest.

Between 500 and 700 million people worldwide are expected to watch the matches on TV, while ticket sales in Antigua have picked up after organizers slashed prices by almost half with fans being affected by flooding from hurricane Omar last week.

The match at Stanford Cricket Ground in Antigua will be preceded by a series of Twenty20 games starting Saturday and also involving Trinidad & Tobago and Middlesex.

Gayle, who scored the first Twenty20 century at last year’s World Cup in South Africa, will have ICC Test cricketer of the year Shivnarine Chanderpaul and West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan as Stanford Superstar teammates.

Pietersen’s side includes match-winning all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and fast bowler Steve Harmison, who have both recently returned from injury and loss of form to re-establish themselves in the England setup.

Former West Indies batsman Daren Ganga will captain Trinidad, which includes Windies wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, while offspinner Shaun Udal will lead a Middlesex team that contains England opener Andrew Strauss and Indian spinner Murali Kartik.

Gibbs believes a good performance from his players could lead to them securing deals in the Indian Premier League.

“If they are successful in this game one or two of them might be getting IPL contracts,” he said. “They are some youngsters who might not have got this type of exposure and it is for them to make use for it.

“The type of money they will be getting will be good for their family … it will serve them in good stead.”

The Superstars take on Trinidad, the regional 20/20 champions, in the first match of the Super Series. England, which arrived Friday, will oppose English champion Middlesex on Sunday.

Trinidad and Middlesex meet Monday in the Stanford Champions Cup with the winners receiving $400,000. England plays Trinidad on Tuesday before the Superstars face Middlesex the next day as they complete their buildup toward the Nov. 1 bonanza.

Cricket often wondered what would happen if it could sell itself to the Americans. On Saturday it will find out as the England team plays its part in a Texan’s vision of the game.

And what a vision it is: a toytown stadium, black bats, silver stumps, vulgar amounts of money and a contraction of the game’s skills into the time it takes to consume a jumbo burger, a tub of popcorn and a bucket of Pepsi. Bad taste, just another toxic asset the United States has given the world. Let us hope that, in these jittery times, the money is good.

Purists fret about what the Indians are doing to the game now they have got their commercial teeth into Twenty20, though as long as their national team thrash the Australians as they did in Mohali last week they will appreciate that Test cricket still has a place and a purpose.

But if Sir Allen Stanford has his way and successfully sells cricket to his fellow Americans, the long-term future of the five-day game could be in terminal decline. The England match, which has had a lot of publicity in the States, will be available there live through ESPN on pay-per-view, with two hours of highlights on terrestrial television the following day. Further concerted PR campaigns such as the one Stanford conducted in Colorado will be needed if serious headway is to be made. Momentum might be built if allrounder Lennox Cush, 33, who has represented the United States and is resident there, were to take the field against England, but he is likely to be among the six members of the Stanford Superstars squad left on the bench.

Speaking before departing for Antigua, Kevin Pietersen, the England captain, conceded that the rise of Twenty20 was a concern for Test cricket, which he regards as “the big stuff”. He said: “It is worrying what may happen in the future. Ten-year-olds now may be thinking they just want to play Twenty20. But [Test match] crowds in England are amazing. We always play in front of full houses here.”

Was there scope for other Stanfords to come along and set up more “exhibition” games? “Yes,” said Pietersen. “Hard as it is to say, cricket is a business, the ECB is a business. We play for our country and we just do as we are told by the ECB.”

Pietersen described Middlesex’s decision to sign Neil Carter on loan from Warwickshire for their showdown against Trinidad & Tobago tomorrow and the Champions League in December as a “disgrace”. But with Middlesex standing to pick up $280,000 for beating Trinidad and $3m for winning the Champions League, such brazen opportunism has become the name of the game. Pietersen’s words will certainly add spice to England’s warm-up match with Middlesex (and Carter) today.

Is Pietersen happy playing in a match so blatantly just about money? “I have to be . . . it’s what I’ve been picked to do,” he said. “I don’t think too deeply about decisions over which I don’t have control.” He stressed, however, that there would be no over-the-top flashing of riches if England were to win. “I have friends who are really struggling just now, people who have lost their jobs,” he said. “There is no way I want people to carry on like a clown, win or lose.”

Gradually, the Twenty20 revolution is redrawing the cricketing map. India, mightily, head the Asian bloc, with Sri Lanka and Pakistan in thrall to them financially and politically. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are attempting to strengthen their fragile balance sheets through a southern hemisphere Twenty20 and the Champions League. (more…)