Identification of Research Paradigms for Managing the Cricketing Ecosystem Using Stakeholder Analysis and Text Mining

Abstract

It took almost 400 years for test cricket to start off, and thereafter it just took 94, 34 and 13 years for the introduction of ODI, T20I and T10 formats, respectively. Length of the formats is shrinking over time at an alarming rate. If the trend continues, the format of five overs or less may not be far away and cricket pundits are fearing that the longest format, that is, test cricket, may lose its relevance. Unfortunately, the management part of the cricketing ecosystem has not drawn much attention from the academic world. Since market dynamics is playing a vital role in decision-making post commercialization of the cricket, this study applies stakeholder analysis and identifies three key stakeholders, namely administrators, players and spectators, and their aspirations. It suggests a shift from the ICC-led hierarchical model to the horizontal and more democratic model for sports governance during the post-commercialization stage. The results of the study indicate that even though ICC had taken a number of measures for advancement of the sport during 2015–2018, many of them are criticized like the world test championship or day-night test matches. The study scrapes through opinions of cricket-related professionals from open sources, applies sentiment analytics to classify them, uses text summarization to extract summary viewpoints and rates them on unanimity scale. A comparison is made between the actions taken by ICC and the pool of unanimous viewpoints using evidence-based assessment (EBA). Finally, it develops a framework of six research paradigms, taking into account the stakeholders’ aspirations and the EBA outcome. If these paradigms are acted upon, it can ensure convergence of stakeholders’ goals and balance in the cricket mix. Additionally, if ICC can make unanimous viewpoints from its stakeholders a part of its future plan, acceptability of its decisions will be more.

Keywords

Cricket ICC test match ODI T20I IPL sports governance stakeholder analysis sentiment analytics text summarization evidence-based assessment

Introduction

The game of cricket is being played from time immemorial. Over last 500 years, it has evolved from a pastime to an international sport, to a game for all genders and even for physically handicapped people, and currently it is played in four formats. Test match got its form after almost 400 years (1478 to 1877) of playing. It took another 94 years for the first one-day international (ODI; 1877 to 1971); though the concept of limited over game was seeded in 1963. In another 34 years (1971 to 2005), the first Twenty20 international (T20I) was played, whereas this shortened format was first conceived in 2003 (ICC, 2019). T Ten (T10) is still not an international format; however International Cricket Council (ICC), the game’s apex body, had approved first such league in 2018 after just one year of seeding (Bose, 2018, 7 August). With the decrease in the number of overs, the game has become more competitive and unpredictable in nature which is evident from the number of ‘upsets’ (where a lower ranked team beats a higher ranked team) in these formats. This, in turn has provided lot of entertainment and excitement to its viewers seeking only a fraction of their time commitment which is reflected by the packed galleries during IPL or similar T20 matches. More viewership has led to lucrative media rights and sponsorships. This has led to salary explosion of players and a flourishing entertainment industry around the game. However, if the trend continues, the length of the game may further diminish and a game of 5 overs or less may not be a distant format. Cricket pundits are concerned that the longest format, that is, test cricket may lose its relevance as a fallout.

Cricket had been hit by major crises in the past and each time it had shown resilience to overcome it. First real crisis struck during the eighteenth century when major matches were virtually stopped due to scarcity of players and funds during the Seven Years War (1756–1763). During the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) too, there was a stoppage of major matches. The South African policy of racial segregation and apartheid was the next major concern affecting cricket. In 1970, the scheduled South African tour of England was cancelled as South Africa had issues with the inclusion of ‘coloured’ cricketer Basil D’Oliveira in the England team (Hughes, 2009).

After such sociopolitical obstacles, came the first financial one, triggered by the Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer in 1977. After disagreement with the Australian Cricket Board over TV rights, Kerry Packer introduced privately run cricket league outside the structure of international cricket. Significantly higher salary, best talents including banned South African players, coloured attire, night games are some the hallmarks of this league which lasted till 1979 (Hughes, 2009).

Cricket was confronted with another hurdle in 2000 when the game’s biggest match-fixing scandal was unearthed, where players like Mohammad Azharuddin of India and Saleem Malik of Pakistan were implicated. South Africa’s captain Hansie Cronje was banned from cricket after he admitted receiving bribes from bookmakers in match-fixing scandal (Turbervill, 2010). Despite creation of ICC anti-corruption unit (ACU) and its surveillance, spot fixing scandal had cropped up when three leading Pakistan players were suspended in 2010 and the game is still not free from it.

Fortunately, all these crises could not deter public interest in the game; rather it had grown manifolds, especially in the Indian subcontinent. Cricket is now the most popular sport in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The craze for shorter version of the game (T20) among players and spectators seems to have dented the popularity of the longest format, that is, test cricket. Cricket pundits consider this oldest and longest format of the game to offer the real test for skill and temperament and treat this as a necessity for the game of cricket to flourish. As the game is being shortened at an alarming rate with T10 in the horizon, cricket has to ensure survival of test cricket—the newest crisis.

Somehow, this crisis has not captured the academic researchers’ imagination. This has largely remained as a problem for the regulators of the game (e.g., ICC and various boards) who may be more influenced by the market dynamics as in demand and economics. ICC’s first ever market research has confirmed a very healthy following for its three major ‘products’, that is, test, ODI and T20I out of a billion fan base (The Telegraph, 2018, 28 June). Despite strong demand for all formats, cricket pundits’ apprehension of ‘untimely death’ of test cricket is not unfounded as many players are leaving test matches to elongate their T20 career (e.g., A. B. de Villiers of South Africa, Chris Gayle of West Indies) and test matches in general has been drawing scant crowd. There are more such contradictions between ICC actions and experts’ views that are regularly being published in the print and digital media. This has triggered this study where a more holistic approach seems appropriate by including all the stakeholders of the game. The objective of the present work is to—(a) identify stakeholders and their aspirations around the game; (b) propose a suitable governance structure; and (c) create a set of research paradigms through convergence of these aspirations aimed towards more effective management of the cricketing ecosystem assuring coexistence of all existing formats.

An interpretivist’s approach has been taken towards understanding the cricketing phenomenology. This research is based on outsider’s (i.e., author) interpretation of insider’s actions (e.g., ICC and country boards) and ‘near-insider’s’ opinions (e.g., present and past professionals related to the game) (Varvasovszky & Brugha, 2000). The study uses stakeholder theory to identify the key stakeholders of the game and their aspirations. It also takes note of how the hierarchical model has yielded to horizontal and more democratic model for sports governance (Geeraert, 2013; Henry & Lee, 2004). The study reveals that even though ICC has taken a number of measures for advancement of the sport, many of them are criticized (e.g., Atherton, 2019, 21 November; Sahi, 2017, 24 September). It then extracts a set of recommendations or criticisms made by the game’s professionals in contemporary literature using text and unanimity analysis and compares the same with the actions taken by ICC using evidence-based assessment (EBA). This comparison blended with stakeholders’ aspirations finally leads to a set of research paradigms fulfilling the aim of this exploratory study.

This is a pioneering research where opinions of cricket related professionals are synthesized for formulating future direction in managing the cricketing ecosystem. Potentially, the outcome of this research should entice the academicians and practitioners to work together and blend management principles, tools and techniques to tackle real life conditions and constraints. If ICC can make unanimous demands from its stakeholders a part of its future plan, acceptability of its decisions will be more under the flat governance model—a major practical implication of this research work.

Literature Review

Literature review reveals abundant research works in the field of measuring team or players’ performance or predicting results of a cricket match (e.g., Davis et al., 2015; Duckworth & Lewis, 1998; Koulis et al., 2014; Lewis, 2005; Scarf et al., 2011; Stefani, 2011, etc.). However, there is a serious dearth of research literature in the area of balancing different formats of cricket and on survival of test cricket. Since ICC is often responsible for the entire policy making and implements all processes through its member boards, it essentially follows hierarchic governance. A review of extant literatures is carried out on organizational governance, in particular for sports organization to assess latest developments. Geeraert et al. (2012) observe that the hierarchic governance structure in sports is often undemocratic since the bottom of the pyramid is expected only to comply with rules and regulations without any role to influence them to their benefit. Henry and Lee (2004) and Geeraert (2013) prescribe the shift from the old unilateral pyramidal structure of authority towards a more horizontal and networked governance as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Source: Henry and Lee (2004).

Geeraert (2013) also identifies transparency and public communication, democratic process, checks and balances, and solidarity as the four dimensions of good governance in the realm of sports. Houlihan (2004) indicates that sports policies are rarely scripted in consultation or in partnership with athletes, so it does not justify the democratic process. However, the traditional self-governed networks are changing as economic drivers have transformed professional sports’ ecosystem—teams buy players; fans buy tickets, merchandizes and subscribes to sports channels; media buys telecasting rights; and big businesses buy sponsorship. Teams are now commodities which are bought and sold (Gerrard, 2004). The globalization and commercialization of sport has created many competing interests with increasing role of sports agents, media rights and commercial sponsors (Katwala, 2000). While describing maturity of a sport in its progression towards business, Beech (2004) has laid out a framework that starts at foundation phase, where change is slow and gradually rises to more uncertainty driven pinnacle namely, post-commercialization phase, where change is rapid. The interim phases of maturity are codification, stratification, professionalization, post-professionalization and commercialization. Former ICC President E. Mani (2009) has aptly summarized the progression of cricket over the last century. Some of his key points are—(a) numerically cricket is the second most popular sports in the world after football; (b) founding member Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has ceded to formation of ICC whose office bearers will be selected democratically by its member countries; (c) in terms of spread, the game now boasts of more than 100 member countries mainly due to sustained ICC development programme; (d) selling of cricket rights to media has made this game rich by a big margin; and (e) T20 is a major innovation aimed at spreading cricket and gaining the Olympic status. He concludes that unless ICC and the national governing bodies lead from the front, private phenomena like Packer’s series and Indian Cricket League (ICL) will step in to encash the game’s popularity. Almost contemporary to this report, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has started the franchise based IPL in 2008 followed by other countries. This has put cricket in Beech’s elite post-commercialization phase, where the stakeholders’ list includes not only players, governing bodies but also the external sponsors and the broadcasters. Burger and Goslin (2005) urged that any sport’s governing body should recognize the needs of stakeholders who are likely to get affected by its decisions and actions. Wolfe and Putler (2002) has gone a step further and claimed that the stakeholder approach helps manage performance in increasingly unpredictable environments by understanding all stakeholders’ needs and aspirations; this leads the study to review literatures on stakeholder analysis.

Stakeholder analysis is an approach or a management tool to identify the actors (e.g., individuals or organizations) to understand their behaviour, interest, inter-relations and intention which, in turn decides their stakes in decision making and its implementation (Varvasovszky & Brugha, 2000). Freeman (1984) has proposed a four-step stakeholder management process, namely, (a) identify relevant stakeholders; (b) determine scope and importance of the stakeholders; (c) enumerate how effectively the expectations of each group are currently being met by the lead organization; and (d) address unmet needs of the stakeholders through modification of the lead organization’s plans, policies and activities. Merrilees et al. (2005) has identified interdependency, degree of affecting/being affected by the organization and the sense of a right in the organization as the three most salient features of stakeholder analysis. Houlihan (2013) has drawn a parallel of stakeholder analysis within the sports industry. The premise includes—(a) the organization (key stakeholders like ICC, FIFA [Fédération Internationale de Football Association], etc.) depends on many stakeholders (e.g., Players, spectators, sponsors, media, etc.) without whom the organization would face great difficulty, if not, cease to function; and (b) all the stakeholders have a legitimate interest in the organization. The philosophy is that managers should include the stakeholder concerns in management decision-making to achieve organizational objectives rather than facilitating the strongest stakeholder’s voice. Freeman and Reed (1983) has presented two different definitions for stakeholders; the first one refers to any group or individual that impacts or is impacted by the consequences of an organization’s achieving its objectives. The second one refers to groups or individuals, who make themselves essential for the organization’s survival by creating dependence. Using the first definition, three most valued stakeholder groups, namely top management, member associations and sponsors have been highlighted in the strategic decision-making process (Miragaia et al., 2014). Varvasovszky and Brugha (2000) have weighed options on who can perform the stakeholder analysis. They have inferred that analysts can be insider, outsider but a combination works the best. While the insider can be swayed by prior generalized perceptions about stakeholders from pre-existing relations, the external analyst can play the role of an ‘independent auditor’ or a ‘neutral player’ but the knowledge level may be suboptimal (Crosby, 1992).

Decoding Freeman’s (1984) proposed four-step stakeholder management process and noting Miragaia et al.’s (2014) recommendation of three most valued stakeholder groups, the present study identifies the administrators, the players and the spectators as the three most important stakeholders in this jigsaw puzzle. Media and Sponsor interest can be treated as an endogenous variable which is the consequence of the chosen stakeholders’ combined interests, the exogenous set of variables. As depicted in Figure 2, the administrators’ aim is to spread the game, promote innovation and facilitate sustainable development. The cricketers’ aspirations include skill enhancement, long and worthy career whereas the same for the fans include satisfaction and value for money that they expect by enjoying the thrill, excitement and skill at display. The Figure 2 also depicts the most important question, that is, what can be the cricket mix so as their aspirations can converge?

Figure 2.

Source: The author.

Methodology

The basic research design for this study is qualitative in nature adopting an interpretivist’s approach towards understanding the cricketing phenomenology. According to the phenomenologists, interpretivism lies in experiencing and appropriating the world through senses, concepts and ideas which may differ from the ‘real world’ (Hammond & Wellington, 2013). There may be a serious dearth of research literature on future of cricket (related to formats and innovations, progression of member countries, etc.), but there had been enormous volume of discussions on the same by professionals related to the sport representing the stakeholder views. Any research will become too theoretical if these opinions are ignored. The study also takes into account the steps taken by the apex body, that is, ICC which are well documented. This research, thus is going to be grounded on outsider’s (i.e., author) interpretation of insider’s actions (e.g., ICC and country boards) and ‘near-insider’s’ opinions (e.g., present and past professionals related to the game) (Varvasovszky & Brugha, 2000).

In order to extract opinions and actions from articles available in digital and print media, it is first necessary to define the sampling units. Typically, each unit represents an identifiable message that is considered for selective inclusion (or exclusion) in an analysis. Krippendorff (2004) has suggested physically separating these units on the basis of time period and keywords. The author has also proposed using—(a) existing theories or practices; (b) the experience or knowledge of experts; or (c) previous research for deriving the analytical constructs. Whereas the time period for the present research is fixed at 2015–2018, expert opinion is sought for deciding on the keywords. Since the research is to be based on opinions and actions related to future of cricket, an initial set of thirty keywords is prepared carefully including twelve country boards, five formats (i.e., test, ODI, T20I, T10, The Hundred) and viewpoints of administrators (e.g., Sponsorship, Innovation), spectators (e.g., Entertainment) and players (e.g., Workload, Retirement). This is then rated by an expert panel for appropriateness. Selection of the search criteria is done on the basis of overall ratings and the final list includes Cricket, ICC, BCCI, ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board), CA (Cricket Australia), tTest, ODI, T20I, T10, The Hundred, Planning, Innovation, Sponsorship and Workload.

The sampling frame thus comprises of all contemporary articles containing one or more of these keywords published in print and digital media of all the cricket playing countries during 2015–2018. Obtaining a representative sample from such a big data set is especially challenging, given its ever-changing and ever-growing nature. In order to select a representative sample, adaptive sampling technique (Webb & Wang, 2014) is employed that includes the advantages of both probability sampling and purposive sampling. Purposive sampling allows the researcher to select incident-rich sources and probability sampling allows selection of sampling units at random. Indian and English media have been given preference. India holds a high position in the cricketing world with respect to skill, fan following and financial strength and England has shaped the game historically and is currently a major cricketing nation. Amongst Indian daily, The Telegraph, The Times of India, The Hindu and Indian Express have been chosen which are head quartered at Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and National Capital Region (NCR) respectively, so as to cover the entire geography of India. As per Wikipedia, these newspapers boast an average daily circulation of 417,298, 2,640,770, 1,404,901 and 309,252 (as on 1 March 2019) respectively. On the digital platform, the search has been restricted to The Times, London and BBC Sports (two of the major media houses in UK), Rediff.com (Indian portal offering news, information and entertainment and shopping services for nearly 25 years), and ESPNcricinfo (27 years in existence; started by a British and an Indian in the USA). Out of all, The Telegraph has been chosen the pivot for daily feed because of its Indian origin, wide cricket coverage, easy availability and it reprints many articles after sifting through the world cricketing news (e.g., from The Guardian, The Times, Wisden, etc.). Complete enumeration of all articles published in The Telegraph minimizes the chance of missing any important event especially for such a longitudinal study spanning over four years. The other sources have been randomly screened for additional articles.

Manually, the opinions and views are scraped from such sources to build a repository of total 156 articles. Later these articles are read several times in order to gain an in-depth understanding of their usefulness in the present context. This has led to the selection of a total of 41 articles. The study revealed strong opinions on test (e.g., test cricket is the ultimate test for one’s ability and character; Rediff.com, 2017, 7 September)) and T20I and IPL (e.g., T20I is the best bet for spreading the game to non-cricketing nations; Press Trust of India, 2017, 6 April) and few moderate views including ODIs. In absence of any strong opinions related to ODI, it seems the oldest and the youngest international formats are fighting for ‘space’ and the professionals are divided in their opinions. Some are genuinely concerned for the future of test, some are ecstatic about success of IPL and T20 version of cricket and others are keeping a balanced view. As per Lombard et al. (2002), two coders have been hired to categorize these articles according to the sentiment. The codes +1, −1 and 0 have been used for pro-test, pro-T20 and balanced views (that includes moderate views on ODI) respectively. Intercoder reliability is measured using per cent agreement and Cohen’s kappa measures since high levels of disagreement among coders may suggest weaknesses in research methods.

Using text summarization, each article has been annotated to key viewpoints and recommendations. Then the entire summary list has been given to the pair of coders for validation and preparation of a frequency table showing number of articles that supports or opposes the viewpoint. Again both the frequency tables are put to intercoder reliability test using per cent agreement and Cohen’s kappa measures. Later these annotations are represented on a unanimity scale ranging from 100% agreement to 50: 50 split in opinions; the more unanimous opinions should be acted upon at once while the others may need more due diligence.

While the above exercise summarizes the viewpoints of cricket related professionals, it is pertinent to take a stock of actions already taken up. ICC is proactive and has introduced a number of new steps and conducted a number of experiments. By text scanning, another 16 articles are selected from the whole repository of 156 articles which has ICC actions and also corresponding reactions from the cricket related professionals. These articles are summarized and coded into ICC’s action points in a similar manner as above.

Gambrill (2006) has described EBA as a popular decision making tool that uses professional judgement in integrating information (e.g., actions, preferences and circumstances) from various stakeholders. In social work, EBA facilitates creating a set of answerable questions based on organizational need. This needs locating the best available evidences (as actions) and judiciously using them to appraise against organizational requirements (as preferences) at a certain instance (describing the circumstances). Hence, the ploy is to judge ICC’s actions in light of the stakeholders’ preferences synthesized above at a time when ICC is spreading the game and is bringing in new reforms (e.g., world test championship, day/night test match, etc.). A comparison is made between the action points (AP) by ICC and the pool of unanimous viewpoints (VP) as collated above using EBA. Finally, the gap between the two leads to a set of research paradigms (RP) aimed towards managing the cricketing ecosystem more efficiently.

The issue of validity or generalizability of the outcome is dealt with by using face validity measure (Neuendorf, 2002). The summarized list of VPs and APs and the EBA outcome were corroborated by an external expert for checking their validity and inclusivity of salient items.

Discussion of Results

The frequency distribution of all articles across sources, countries and professions are cited in Table 1.

Table 1.

Frequency Distribution of Articles Across Sources, Countries and Professions

Frequency Distribution With Respect To
Source	Frequency	Country	Frequency	Profession	Frequency
BBC Sports	1	Australia	1	Administrator	1
The Hindu	1	England	16	Present Cricketer	8
Indian Express	1	India	19	Ex-Cricketer	8
Rediff	1	New Zealand	1	Ex-Cricketer & Administrator	15
Telegraph	34	South Africa	1	Ex-Cricketer & Columnist	7
The Times	2	Sri Lanka	1	Journalist	2
Times of India	1	West Indies	2
Total	41	Total	41	Total	41

Source: The author.

A close scrutiny of Table 1 reveals that source-wise there is a high density for The Telegraph. Data collection has been done on a continuous basis during 2015–2018 and it is not an instantaneous search result. Since The Telegraph has been chosen as the pivot for daily feed, many news items appearing in more than one place including The Telegraph are credited to The Telegraph. Other sources are searched randomly as a follow up activity based on the need. Country-wise there is a representation of all major cricketing nations with high density for India and England. Profiling by profession shows that the articles are well distributed amongst administrators, present and past cricketers and journalists. Their opinions can be considered as stakeholders’ viewpoints as most of them played and/or managed the game at the highest level. Overall, the frequency distributions provide a snapshot on the extent of coverage of this research.

Text Analytics

All the 41 articles are put to codification by a pair of coders since a close perusal has revealed that the professionals related to cricket are divided in their opinions. The per cent agreement as a measure for intercoder reliability is more than 85% (35 out of 41). Cohen’s kappa value came out to be 0.763 which is significant. As per Lombard et al. (2002), any measure exceeding 0.7 may be taken as satisfactory for exploratory studies. This sentiment analysis exercise has revealed that there are 22, 14 and 5 articles showing pro-test, pro-T20 and balanced sentiments respectively. Tables 2, 3 and 4 summarize such opinions and categorize them based on sentiment shared, that is, pro-test, pro-T20 and balanced, respectively.

Table 2.

Summary of ‘Pro-Test’ Sentiments (in Chronologically Reverse Order)

Who	When	What
Graeme Smith	3-Nov-18	He suggested six months of T20 cricket domestically and six months of international cricket. There should not be any T20 international match. He proposed for more marketing spends for popularizing test cricket. He welcomed India Caption Virat Kohli’s liking for tests—same will percolate. He wants balance in the international schedule, otherwise a cramped schedule may lead many more sudden retirements like AB de Villiers (The Telegraph, 2018, 3 November).
Kevin Pietersen	13-Jun-18	He opined that five-day Test remains the supreme form of the game. T20 provides the thrill, the noise, the speed. It has improved fielding by leaps and bounds and has redefined batting. However, in his opinion, it offers the cricket without the full sting. He vouches for more Day-Night games as it has immense potential to bring back the fans to the game. He also wanted equal marketing effort on Test rather than succumbing to the lazy assumption that Twenty20 rules (The Telegraph, 2018, 13 June).
Kevin Pietersen	10-Jun-18	He criticized England’s overt emphasis on ODI to win World Cup 2019 have worked towards ‘detriment’ of England’s Test-match form and this has alienated fans who care more about Test success(The Telegraph, 2018, 10 June).
Michael Vaughan	4-Jun-18	He thinks shortening tests from five days to four is ‘worth a try’ if it ‘rejuvenates’ the format (BBC Sport, 2018, 4 June).
Gautam Gambhir Harbhajan Singh	18-May-18	He thinks BCCI should do more marketing for Test matches. In his opinion, BCCI should play test matches in relatively new centres where not many big matches had been played (The Telegraph, 2018, 18 May).
Michael Atherton	11-May-18	He criticized the World Test Championship format, each country will play three series home and away over two years, but not necessarily playing against everyone. In his opinion, this is a compromise designed to fit into the existing Future Tours Programme (Atherton, 2018, 11 May).
Jonny Bairstow	3-Mar-18	He was surprised by a paltry turn out at Durban during a hotly anticipated test series between South Africa and Australia in 2018. According to him, it renders real test of one’s mental capacity and technique. However, if this is not nurtured properly (e.g., Day-Night Tests), people may give up red-ball cricket, because of so many white ball lucrative tournaments around the world (Bairstow, 2018, 3 March).
Moeen Ali	24-Feb-18	England all-rounder Moeen said he fears for the future of Test cricket, claiming the ‘disappointing’ turnout in the Ashes series in Australia had opened his eyes to the struggles of the game’s longer format. Cricket Australia said after the visitors’ recent 0–4 defeat that more than 865,000 people had attended the five-Test series, the highest since the 1936–1937 Ashes (Ali, 2018, 24 February).
Mike Brearly	17-Dec-17	He stated that T20 domestic leagues are the biggest threat to Test cricket especially in countries like New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the West Indies where test cricketers are not well paid, He never thought cricket would be affected by match-fixing or infested by bookmakers. It is a direct fallout of huge money coming into the sport through media rights and huge audiences (Sahi, 2017, 17 December).
Gideon Haigh (Australian journalist)	8-Nov-17	People may get sick of it by the sheer abundance of T20. T20s do not leave sufficiently memorable traces, soon becoming obsolete. It stretches the players on skill, fitness and personal life. The focus will be on individual success rather than a Cricket Institution—so self-motivation may be key to remain relevant. The greed for success may turn them selfish, lonely and cynical leading to corruption (Haigh et al., 2017, 8 November).
Bishan Singh Bedi	22-Oct-17	He is of the opinion that a good Test cricketer is capable of delivering in all formats but not vice versa. He was critical that IPL performances are getting more importance for test match selection rather than Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy He recommended budding chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav to play more first class cricket rather than T20 or ODI (Sahi, 2017, 22 October).
Kapil Dev	15-Oct-17	He suggested introducing Fan of the Match (FoM) and Fan of the Day (FoD) awards to draw bigger crowds at Test matches, instead of changing the tradition e.g., 4 day test match (Sahi, 2017, 15 October).
Dilip Vengsarkar	8-Oct-17	He opined that Test cricket is the toughest format but it is now losing relevance. The younger generation is embracing T20 as the same is more rewarding financially. He mentioned improvement in poor planning and scheduling of longer format games—two back to back India vs Sri Lanka series, Duleep Trophy becoming a four match affair. Day-Night test may have issues of sighting the pink ball, dew factors, and so on. People loving test cricket will still come to the ground during the day. He thought 4 day test may be a better step (Sahi, 2017, 8 October).
Michael Atherton	4-Oct-17	Andrew Strauss, director of England cricket introduced white-ball contracts. More England cricketers were thinking of following the path set by Adil Rashid and Alex Hales because of the security blanket offered by their England one–day contracts Tony Irish, the executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers, whose job is also to champion the interest of professional players, thought differently: ‘The fact that it is happening in England will send shockwaves through world cricket,’ he said, intimating that the schedule is broken beyond repair The England head coach Trevor Bayliss suggested that there should be no T20 Internationals at all, save for the few months preceding the quadrennial world cup. One of his players, Jos Buttler said that he would be disappointed if he could only play International T20s every four years, as his coach had suggested (Atherton, 2017, 4 October).
Michael Atherton	25-Sep-17	He opined that interest in test cricket is not declining because of its duration, since only 58% matches enter the fifth day in this decade compared to 77% in the 1980s. He thinks Test matches are suffering because of overflowing calendar of domestic T20 and International matches. This is providing players and spectators many alternatives. He recommended scheduling all 3 formats in such a way that best players are available for all the formats. Also there should be more space to first class cricket even if at the cost of reducing ODIs (Atherton, 2017, 25 September).
Mike Brearley	24-Sep-17	He prefers 5 day test over 4 day test but 4 day test may be inevitable in future as that will allow more competition between teams and more windows for scheduling (Sahi, 2017, 24 September).
Kapil Dev	22-Sep-17	He was too traditional to accept 4 day test as this is at the expense of history (Dev, 2017, 22 September).
Michael Holding	22-Sep-17	The legendary fast bowler believes test cricket is the ultimate test for one’s ability and character. In his opinion, money has taken the precedence for the administrators as T20 is a weed running wild (Rediff.com, 2017, 7 September).
Mithali Raj	27-Jul-17	She feels that test cricket provides ultimate test for temperament, skill or endurance. Women’s cricket needs promotion and till now this is done through T20s and ODIs by the respective cricket boards. Test matches should also be played because it can produce quality players (Press Trust of India, 2017, 27 July).
Mike Brearley	5-Jul-17	He described absence of AB de Villiers in the Lord’s test as a ‘red flag’ for test. T20 leagues are providing more options to choose from even at the cost of international cricket (The Telegraph, 2017, 5 July).
Sachin Tendulkar	17-May-17	He had the greatest satisfaction when he did well in Tests while comparing it with ODI (The Telegraph, 2017, 17 May).

Source: The author.

Table 3.

Summary of ‘Pro-T20’ Sentiments (in Chronologically Reverse Order)

Who	When	What
Jos Buttler	6-Jun-18	He credited IPL for his success versus Pakistan. IPL taught him to consume pressure and perform without worrying too much for past failures or external factors (The Telegraph, 2018, 6 June).
Mike Hesson	18-May-18	He thinks T20I may add to overall workload, but it helps generate revenue as well. For New Zealand, T20Is are vital as it draws crowd citing example of 35,000 spectators at Eden Park, Auckland. For many players T20I is the best opportunity to play international cricket (The Telegraph, 2018, 18 May).
Virender Sehwag	20-Jan-18	He thinks IPL has fast-tracked many players’ growth, for example, Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammed Siraj, Basil Thampi of India and David Warner and Glenn Maxwell of Australia (The Telegraph, 2018, 20 January).
Ravindra Jadeja	13-Jul-17	He thinks IPL provides good platform for youngsters citing his own example. Because of its wide viewership, good performances get easily noticed. However, he believes that Test cricket will survive despite the T20 onslaught (The Telegraph, 2017, 13 July).
Sachin Tendulkar	24-May-17	He wished India played T20 enough before the 2003 World Cup final against Australia which would have changed batsmen’s approach to chasing big scores in ODIs (The Telegraph, 2017, 24 May).
Ben Stokes	24-May-17	He thinks his batting and bowling skill has improved a lot by interaction with Australian captain Steve Smith and South African cricket coach Eric Simons while playing for Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) in IPL (Westerby, 2017, 24 May).
Eoin Morgan	5-May-17	Commenting on a phenomenal unbeaten century in IPL X for RPS by Ben Stokes, he opined that Ben outperformed two of the game’s stalwarts Steve Smith and Mahendra Singh Dhoni in RPS and this will provide him a lot of confidence which will help England’s cause in their Champions Trophy campaign (The Telegraph, 2017, 5 May).
Sunil Gavaskar	3-May-17	Playing together in IPL has reduced animosity between international players because of sharing of culture. But this had not reduced intensity and the fierce pride of playing and doing well for their respective countries (The Telegraph, 2017, 3 May).
Sachin Tendulkar Sourav Ganguly	6-Apr-17	He never thought IPL will be such a big event in all aspects—competitiveness, sportsmanship, spreading the game to non-cricketing nations. He thinks when a youngster performs in front of 30 to 40,000 spectators, they learn to deal with pressure. IPL is bound to take Indian cricket forward (Press Trust of India, 2017, 6 April).
Ravi Shastri	3-Apr-17	He opined that the quality of IPL cricket is top class and lot of Indian players are emerging from this format. Market force is ensuring big bucks which are no player’s fault (The Telegraph, 2017, 3 April).
Ben Stokes	31-Mar-17	He thinks tournaments like IPL or Big Bash enables mixing with international players. Competing against the best, both batsmen and bowlers try to be more cerebral in foxing each other (The Telegraph, 2017, 31 March).
Syed Kirmani	19-Sep-15	IPL provides a terrific platform for youngsters. Playing with and against world class players, they can emulate. The stress now is on result rather than techniques and he predicts T10 matches soon. There is lot of glamour and commercialization has come into the game which will do good. With proper technique one tends to last longer and is appreciated more than those who do not have technique (The Telegraph, 2015, 19 September).
Chris Gayle	10-Jun-15	He thinks India is dominating all the formats because of IPL. Indian players are becoming more confident and more aware of international opponents by playing with and against them (Press Trust of India, 2015, 10 June).

Source: The author.

Table 4.

Summary of ‘Balanced’ Sentiments (in Chronologically Reverse Order)

Who	What	When
S. Dinakar (Indian Journalist)	11-Mar-18	The salary structure Test cricketers had improved but it still falls short of people who had excelled in shorter formats, for example, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah. In his opinion, Test cricket being the most comprehensive test of skill and temperament should set the benchmark for compensation package; the other formats should be a corollary (Dinakar, 2018, 11 March).
Kumara Sangakara	8-Feb-18	T20 is the ideal platform to capture new markets (e.g., America, China). However, if tests do not change, it may become difficult to remain relevant with young fans and players. One of the suggestions he made was to have a ‘blanket minimum pay’ for test cricketers all over the world. Right now, India, England and Australia are far away from the rest of the countries (The Telegraph, 2018, 8 February).
Dilip Vengsarkar	8-Oct-17	Agreed with Atherton’s view of organizing contests featuring two Tests and as many ODIs and T20Is over a two-year period between all test playing countries with no exclusively bilateral series. He thinks there’s space for ODI and there’s a following (Sahi, 2017, 8 October).
Michael Atherton	4-Oct-17	Atherton agrees that there are merits in Andrew Strauss’s initiative of ‘Super Series’ to create a multi-format points system by connecting Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 cricket. A deep dive into its causes of failure revealed the following issues: - Test cricket no longer has sufficient pull to entice best young talents compared to T20. - This is leading to specialization in one format of the game - As the cricket calendar encourages players to make these choices: it pits Tests against T20, and international against domestic - This will hit Test and international cricket badly Atherton is of the opinion that in order to protect Test and first-class cricket, one should encourage players to delay specialization. This may be achieved by asking international teams to pick the same squad of 16–17 players across all formats—with one points table (maximum points for a Test win and minimum for a T20 win) and a massive incentive for the winners over a two-year period. If this does not allow conventional 5 test Ashes series or India Australia test series, then the window can be enhanced to 4 years with the other two years could be filled with more traditional fixture. According to him, multi-format competition with a definite end result will enhance interest of viewers and will also encourage players to excel at all formats rather than drifting away from first-class and Test cricket (Atherton, 2017, 4 October).
Ravi Shastri	3-Apr-17	T20 can be the much needed cash cow for survival of Test Cricket; ODI may disappear. He suggested higher salary for Test specialists while referring to 2 crore contract for Pujara. If test cricket is to survive, T20 should be used as the much needed cash cow. He also advocated stopping the Champions Trophy as no other game has so many world championships (The Telegraph, 2017, 3 April).

Source: The author.

Next using text summarization, summary viewpoints are extracted from each of the detailed excerpts. The entire list is then shared with the pair of coders for validation and preparation of a frequency table showing number of articles that supports or opposes the viewpoint. Two frequency tables thus achieved are put to intercoder reliability test using per cent agreement and Cohen’s kappa measures. The per cent agreement as a measure for intercoder reliability is more than 78% (22 out of 28). Cohen’s kappa value has come out to be 0.727, both of which are acceptable as per Lombard et al. (2002). Later these viewpoints are annotated to VP1 to VP18 and shown on a unanimity scale as displayed in Table 5.

Table 5.

Unanimity Scale Post Text Summarization

Summarized Opinions	Rating on Unanimity Scale Unanimous Divided
VP1. Test matches offer real test for skill and temperament and the same should be preserved through innovation
VP2. Innovations like Day-Night Tests are needed to preserve this format
VP3. Test cricket may lose out on money factor that is propelling T20
VP4. The domestic and international calendar should be drawn up for relevance and balance
VP5. Matching marketing effort should be there to make Test more popular
VP6. Longer formats rather than T20 should get importance for test match selection
VP7. Four Day test match can be a potential innovation
VP8. There should not be any T20 international match
VP9. People may get sick of T20 by its sheer abundance
VP10. Franchise based T20 may make players selfish, lonely and cynical leading to corruption
VP11. Fan of the Match and Fan of the Day awards may draw bigger crowds at Test matches
VP12. IPL (T20) is helping all round development of Indian (World) cricket and overall skills
VP13. IPL (T20) is helping to spread cricket
VP14. T20 can be the cash cow for survival of Test cricket in many countries
VP15. IPL has reduced animosity between international players but not intensity
VP16. There should be ‘blanket minimum pay’ for test cricketers all over the world
VP17. ODI should make way for Test and T20
VP18. Low turnout at test matches

Source: The author.

Out of 18 viewpoints, 8 have been unanimous (namely VP1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 13, 14 and 15) and 5 have been on an 87.5: 12.5 concurrence (namely, VP10, 11, 12, 16 and 18), whereas rest 5 viewpoints are more divided, for example, ODIs should make way for test and T20, innovations like day-night tests are needed to preserve this format and four-day test match can be a potential innovation. The study claims that the unanimous viewpoints should be taken into account for building any future strategy whereas more analyses are needed before working on the split decisions. However, VP5 is kept outside the purview of this study since it needs ‘insider’ analysis and VP15 is a statement that does not need any immediate action.

As it stands, ICC is a proactive body that had introduced a number of action points to make cricket one of the most dynamic games. Few of these measures taken over last few years and associated reactions, as available are summarized and coded as AP1 to AP10 in Table 6.

Table 6 shows that ICC is on constant vigil monitoring the game’s health and is implementing measures for betterment. With its actions being scrutinized (both praised and criticized) by so many stalwarts of the game, as shown in Tables 2, 3, 4 and 5, there is a fair chance of ironing out differences iteratively. Listening to the stakeholders’ views and incorporating them in future action plans will enhance their acceptability—one of the key messages of this article.

Table 6.

Summary of ICC Measures (in Chronologically Reverse Order)

Events	Date	Details
AP1. T10 Cricket	7-Aug-18	ICC had approved second edition of the T10 Cricket League tournament to be played between 23 November 2018 and 2 December
League		2018 in UAE (Bose, 2018, 7 August).
	25-Sep-18	Former Australian batsman Dean Jones feels the T10 version of cricket will obviously be tough for bowlers but should make them smarter as well. Jones also feels that T10 ‘might be the format that do well in countries like US and Canada’.
		Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram believes T10 could be the format if cricket is introduced in the Olympics or in Asian Games, Commonwealth Games or even the SAFF Games as the game can get over in one hour and 20minutes (The Telegraph, 2018, 25 September).
AP2. Market research	28-Jun-18	ICC conducted first ever market research on cricket recently. It revealed 70, 88, 92% fans globally are interested in Test, ODI and T20I Cricket respectively. The importance and popularity of ICC global events was evident with 95% of fans interested or very interested in the World Cup and the ICC World T20 (The Telegraph, 2018, 28 June).
AP3. Addition to ODI nations	1-Jun-18	ICC had expanded ODI nations to 16 by inducting emerging ODI sides, Nepal, Netherlands, Scotland and UAE to the elite panel (ICC, 2018, 1 June).
AP4. ICC Cricket Committee Meeting	29-May-18	The Tradition of the Toss Will Stay During the World Test Championship Scheduled to Start from July 2019. Also, There Will Be No Points for Series Wins, but a Draw Will Earn Teams a Third of the Available Points. These Were the Recommendations from the ICC Cricket Committee, Which Also Said Ball-Tampering and Personal Abuse Should Carry Serious Penalties. The Chief Executives’
		Committee Will Deliberate on These Suggestions in June Before Final Ratification by the ICC Board (Gollapudi, 2018, 29 May).
AP5. ICC Annual General Meeting (AGM)	27-Apr-18	David Richardson, ICC CEO Said in the Briefing of an ICC Meet That All T20 Matches Between the ICC Members (e.g., Fiji and Vanuatu) Will Be Awarded T20 International Status and That a Global Rankings System in the Shortest Format Will Be Introduced. He Informed That the Global Rankings in T20I for Women and Men Will Be Launched in October 2018 and in May 2019. According to Him, the T20 Format Can Help Transforming Cricket to a Global Sport.
		He Mentioned That There Will Be World Test Championship Involving 9 Test Countries (excluding Zim, Ire and Afg) Where Each Team Will play Six Series over a Three-Year Period in the Test Championship. Also, He Informed About the ODI World Cup Qualification League where 13 Teams Will Compete.
		While Speaking About the Future Tours Programme (FTP) for the Period of 2019–2023, ODI World Cups in 2019 (UK) and 2023 (India), and World T20s in 2020 (Australia) and 2021 (India) Have Been Planned. The Champions Trophy, to Be Held in India in 2021, Was Proposed to Convert into a World T20 Event (The Telegraph, 2018, 27 April).
AP6. 100 ball tournament	19-Apr-18	The ECB had announced to begin a 100 ball tournament by scrapping T20 for the eight city teams from 2020. While reducing the game by 40 balls, ECB had been toying with many ideas like no LBW, 10 ball final over, twenty 5 ball over, 12-a-side game with Supersub concept that was introduced in ODIs in 2005 (The Guardian UK, 2018, 19 April).
		Commenting on 100 ball game, Sourav Ganguly mentioned that shorter the format, the difference between the good and the ordinary becomes less. He will wait to see how short it gets (The Telegraph, 2018, 12 May).
		Eoin Morgan thinks cricket will die unless it embraces new products like 100-ball game (The Telegraph, 2018, 27 April).
		While supporting the initiative, Joe Root clarified that ECB wanted to simplify the game for fresh audience, specifically women and kids.
		If the format succeeds, it could lead to interest in the longer forms of the game as well (The Telegraph, 2018, 25 April).
AP7. 4day Test match	13-Dec-17	ICC chief executive David Richardson informed that the trial of four-day Test cricket would run until the 2019 World Cup, although participation in it is not mandatory. He expected the shortened version to be especially beneficial to the lower-ranked teams like Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. The inaugural four day test match was played between South Africa and Zimbabwe during 26–29
		December 2017 (ESPNcricinfo, 2017, 13 December).
AP8. MCC WCC 9-Jul-17 meeting		Sourav Ganguly stated that the following were discussed at the MCC World Cricket committee meeting held on 3 and 4 July 2017 (The Telegraph, 2017, 9 July).
brief		• Distribution model in international cricket
		• Protecting and sustaining the future of Test cricket
		• Inclusion of cricket in the Olympic Games
		• ICC Cricket committee’s suggested changes to DRS
		• World Test League with a championship final
AP9. Test 22-Jun-17 Status for		During the ICC’s AGM on 22 Jun 2017, Afghanistan and Ireland were unanimously voted to become cricket’s 11th and 12th Test-playing nations.
Afghanistan and Ireland		Former England captain Mike Atherton raised question on how Ireland can sustain test status. Most of the current cricketers are closer to retirement and quality replacements are not in abundance. Irish players will be considered as overseas players for playing County cricket after September 2019. Unless the present skeletal first class structure is refurbished, Ireland may suffer (Atherton, 2018, 11 May).
		As for Afghanistan, all international teams touring India will now play one practice game against Afghanistan. This arrangement will provide much needed international exposure to the strife-torn nation (Press Trust of India, 2018, 31 May).
AP10. D/N Test 30-Jun-14 match		ICC gave green signal for its member countries to work together for playing Test matches under lights in 2012. Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket worked together to make this happen at Adelaide during 27 November−1 December 2015 (India Today, 2014, 30 June).

Source: The author.

Evidence-based Assessment

It is already seen how most of the ICC actions have met mixed responses like day-night test (Pietersen, 2018, 13 June vs Sahi, 2017, 8 October), four-day test match (Sahi, 2017, 24 September vs Dev, 2017, 22 September), 2019–2021 ICC World Test championship (WTC) (The Telegraph, 2019, 10 October vs Atherton, 2019, 21 November), and so on. On the contrary, even though professionals are unanimous about test matches being the real test for skill and temperament, there is sparse marketing effort for popularizing the same (Pietersen, 2018, 13 June). IPL is being blamed by many for batsmen’s overall deterioration in technique or test matches not lasting the distance (Sahi, 2017, 22 October). So, if ICC can act upon more unanimous viewpoints, it can hear more positive feedbacks post implementation. Table 7 provides the EBA outcome through contextual mapping between viewpoints and ICC action points leading to the gaps.

Table 7.

Contextual Mapping Between Viewpoints (VP) and ICC Action Points (AP)

VP	Related APs	EBA Outcome
VP1	AP4, 5, 8, 9	Importance of test cricket has been stressed by everyone for the survival of the game. ICC also expanded the test gamut by including Afghanistan and Ireland and planned for World test championship (WTC). However, questions are raised if Afghanistan and Ireland can withstand the rigour of test matches. In view of accusation of T20 for deterioration of test skills, it may be pertinent to gauge the influence. With many established players retiring from test to elongate their T20 career, it is worthwhile understanding cricketers’ psyche.
VP2	AP10	Decision of playing day/night test match by ICC is not unanimously applauded. VP2 is kept outside the present framework due to split opinion.
VP3	AP2	The unanimous belief is that the lucrative offers in shorter versions of the game may prove to be a deterrent for younger generation to embrace longer versions. ICC’s market survey had proved that there is ‘market’ for all three ‘products’. It needs understanding cricketers’ preferences since it relates to earning their livelihood and possibly educating them on nuances of these formats.
VP4	AP5	ICC plans international tournaments and matches via the Futures Tours and Programme (FTP) in advance. However, the unanimous view is that it lacks relevance, purpose and balance on many occasions. The WTC fixture was also criticized for its incompleteness and asymmetry. It needs more careful approach towards deciding the cricket mix—which country plays what proportion of three formats and against whom?
VP5		Many stalwarts have expressed the need for concerted marketing effort to popularize test. However, the same has been kept outside the purview of proposed research paradigms as the same needs more ‘insider’ information.
VP6		The common view is performance in longer formats should be the criteria for test match selection. The question arises about the growth path of emerging countries that are not yet playing tests or are just elevated to. For established test nations, it may be worthwhile to assess the influence of shorter versions on test if selections for longer format are made on the basis of performances in shorter versions.
VP7	AP7	Decision of playing 4 day test match by ICC is not applauded unanimously. Hence the same is kept outside the present framework.
VP8	AP2	Experts are split in their opinion on whether to play any T20 international match since there are so many franchise based T20 tournaments. Again, the VP is kept outside the present framework.
VP9		Even though the opinion that sheer abundance of T20 may make fans allergic to it is a split one, it raises a more intrinsic question of what fans expect from a cricket game. It is important to map their aspirations against offerings of 3 prevalent formats.
VP10		Many believe that if a player keeps on playing franchise based T20 cricket across countries throughout the year it can lead to moral erosion. ICC and the country boards should inculcate amongst players the need for upholding the integrity of the game right from their preparatory stages.
VP11		Many believe that actively involving fans during test matches may draw them to the grounds. It may be pertinent to understand what fans expect from a cricket game.
VP12	AP2	Many believe IPL and T20 had made cricket more popular, more skilful and India has been immensely benefitted. The ICC market survey does portray an encouraging picture on fan following; it may be pertinent to see if and how India is benefitted on cricketing measures.
VP13	AP1, 2, 5	Experts are unanimous that IPL and T20 are helping spread cricket around the world. The ICC market survey and inclusion of new countries under the aegis of international T20 and ODI prove the same. Buoyed by the success, ICC has already approved T10 cricket league in UAE. Calls for no immediate action
VP14	AP6	There is a common belief that T20 can be the cash cow for survival of test cricket. ICC has approved 100 ball tournament in England as an innovation. Calls for no immediate action.
VP15		Experts feel that IPL has reduced animosity between international players. Calls for no immediate action.
VP16		Many believe that test players are not ‘well paid’. For a professional player, earning livelihood for entire life during the short playing career is a major consideration. This has direct influence on shaping their career and on moral behaviour. Since deciding ‘pay structure’ is an ‘internal’ matter of each board, it needs access to a lot of classified information.
VP17	AP2, 3	ODI should make way for T20 and test is a split opinion. The fact is ODI enjoys a healthy 88% fan-base and ICC is enhancing its ODI base. One may check how far ODI is fulfilling fans’ expectations.
VP18		Experts are worried about low turnout of fans during test matches. It needs more intense study on—(a) understanding the fans’ expectations from a game of cricket; (b) how far these expectations are fulfilled by test matches; (c) bringing in necessary changes to entice the fans along with concerted marketing effort.

Source: The author.

Consolidating the EBA outcome, six research paradigms (RP1 to RP6) have been formulated. Concurrence has been obtained from an external expert on the summarized list of VPs, APs and the RPs to ascertain that they are reflecting the reality as and when they were prepared. The expert suggested conducting more in-depth analysis on each of the RPs which are cited below.

RP1: Does 20 over cricket influence the way of playing test cricket? Since India is in the fulcrum of IPL, it may be pertinent to see how India progressed in test cricket after IPL is introduced. Later, the same study can be extended for other countries as well since the outcome can affect administrators and the players.

RP2: What can be the growth path for emerging countries? Should a team get the test status based on T20 and ODI performance? This is straightway related to the administrators and their policy making. It’s not surprising that Ireland and Afghanistan lost their steam within couple of days during their inaugural test series since a shift from 100 overs to 450 overs was not probably bridged. Both the countries have a poor first class infrastructure. Afghanistan is hit by political disturbances and Ireland will be hit severely after September 2019 when English counties will start treating Irish players as overseas players (Atherton, 2018, 11 May).

RP3: How are the cricketers shaping up their career with such deluge of cricket? Ray (2018) has shown that average number of years of 1st class cricket before debuting for India has actually increased during the timeframe 2000–2015, contrary to popular belief that IPL has hastened the national test call up. The result of the study also indicates that cricketers who are successful in test cricket generally get a successful stint in T20 as well and players who do not get much success in test cricket embraces T20 as an alternative option to stretch their career. Similar studies should be conducted for other test playing countries as the same will provide an answer to the players’ aspiration and career build up.

RP4: How can the administrators uphold the integrity of the game? How can the pursuit of money be tied up with good cricket and good name? According to Brian Lara, the higher ranked teams in the world should come forward to uphold the integrity of the game which West Indies failed to do against Pakistan in 1988 and England in 1990 (The Telegraph, 2017, 6 September). In country like India, cricket is the religion that binds people from different walks of life. Players have a larger than life image. Cricket, money and name have become inseparable; if the same continues, conflict of interest or even dilution of ethics or spirit can happen (Desai, 2017, 6 June). With lucrative T20 deals worldwide, one needs to act on the salary structure to protect interest of test cricketers. Subjects like ethics and finance will percolate top-down; hence, this RP is more for the administrators’ policy making.

RP5: What are the cricket fan’s expectations from a game of cricket? It is heartening to see healthy percentages of audiences loving each of the 3 international formats and the count of cricket followers has surpassed the billion mark as an outcome of ICC‘s market survey (The Telegraph, 2018, 28 June). Being the ‘consumers’ of the game they will dictate the cricket mix. Separate analyses should be carried out for matured and emerging markets because consumers’ preference may vary. Spectators, fans or followers are an integral part of any sports who invest time, money, emotion or a combination. As consumers of sporting events (termed as services), they set the service quality parameters which needs to be unearthed.

RP6: What is the right cricket mix for matured and emerging countries? The WTC has begun from July 2019 and will run for two years. However, the itinerary is asymmetric where neither all countries play same number of test matches, home or away, nor against all opponents (Atherton, 2019, 21 November). For example, India is scheduled to play 10 home matches (vs Bangladesh, South Africa and England) and 8 away matches (in Australia, West Indies and New Zealand) and does not play against Pakistan and Sri Lanka at all. Ideally, each country should have played all other countries equal number of times on home and away basis. But it seems time constraint and public interest has played a role in this abridged itinerary. With the next Futures Tours and Programme (FTP) for 8 year period (2023–2031) being planned, it is high time all 3 stakeholders’ aspirations are analysed for convergence.

Conclusion

Worldwide, sports have become an integral part of entertainment industry. Cricket is number one sport in Asian countries (like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) and ranks very high in the countries like Australia, South Africa and England. Star India has bagged the global combined media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at a whopping figure of ₹16,3475 million even though Sony is the highest TV bidder and Facebook is the highest digital bidder (The Telegraph, 2017, 5 September). This has made IPL comparable to lucrative leagues like National Basketball Association League (NBAL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), English Premier League (EPL), and so on. If the length of the tournaments is apportioned (Kalra, 2017, 5 September). Star India has also bagged the media rights for television and digital rights for the Indian cricket team and domestic championships from 2018 to 2023 with a ₹6,1381 million bid (Bhose, 2018, 6 April). While economics will dictate the terms, it can be a fallout of—(a) what spectators want to see; (b) how cricketers are making their career out of this deluge of cricket; and above all (c) how the regulatory bodies (e.g., ICC, BCCI, ECB, CA, etc.) are bringing a balance in cricket mix and educating the spectators and players depending on the cricket maturity of the land. There is as much dearth of research work on this as there is abundance of individual opinions from professionals of the game. The current exploratory study examines such opinions and ICC actions and presents six research paradigms that demand attention from academicians and practitioners for better management of the game. Since there is ‘market’ for all three formats, strategies need to be worked out based on the maturity of each member country; presently there are 12 full members and 92 associate members of ICC (2019). The study also suggests the innovative approach for ICC to continuously ‘listen’ to what is being said in the digital and print media and make this part of its decision making. Any future strategy based on unanimous ideas will be more democratic in nature—a requirement for horizontal governance.

Limitations and Future Directions

Limitation of time, money and availability restricted the selection of document sources for the present analysis. At a larger scale, ICC can use tools like Radian6 as a social listening tool, VBPro or WordStat for content analysis and Atlas or NVivo for annotation for conducting an all-encompassing (with respect to keywords and article sources) study with probability sampling. Relying solely on automated procedures may affect the detailed comprehension. Computer-assisted coding and searching complemented by human interventions seems the best way forward.

The present work does not involve any ‘insider’ due to access constraints and treats reading their minds through open media as the next best option. There is scope for improvement as insider input will add more rigour to the whole exercise. Also the study has simplified the stakeholder model by treating media and sponsor interest as endogenous variable—a consequence of 3 chosen stakeholders’ combined interests. In order to probe the relationship network one can include actors like media, sponsor, government entities and even equipment manufacturers; since each stands with an intent and interest (Henry & Lee, 2004). For example, Majumdar and Mitra (2020, 10 January) reported that global broadcast rights may increase substantially if WTC during the next FTP mandates four-day test matches predicted by the market analysts.

Due to the commercialization of various sports (e.g., football, cricket) in the last few decades, sport is now perceived as an integral part of entertainment industry (Anagnostopoulos, 2011; Zagnoli & Radicchi, 2010). As a result, senior management in sports is under intense scrutiny and this has inescapably led to questions on management practice (Ferkins & Shilbury, 2010). Stakeholder theory enables a shift from organization-based approach where stakeholders are treated as dependent bodies and are managed solely for the organization’s own benefit, to an approach based on the relationship networks and complementary skill sets for any organization (Nguyen & Menzies, 2010). Application of stakeholder theory to the sports industry is still in a nascent stage (Russo & Vito, 2011) barring few exceptions like football (Anagnostopoulos, 2011; Michie & Oughton, 2005; Stevens & Watkins-Mathys, 2006), swimming (Breitbarth & Harris, 2008; Parent & Séguin, 2007) or on sporting events (Parent et al., 2011; Sotiriadou, 2009). The present work can be treated as a pioneering work in the field of cricket and it can be a reference point for many researches by practising managers as well as academicians.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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