Two countries, effectively a quarter of world cricket remember, broke with tradition and embraced a new reality this week. It wasn’t surprising. The wind rarely keeps its direction a secret. England and Sri Lanka moved towards a new world; a tumultuous, uncertain world at the moment (almost as uncertain as the grammar in this paragraph!) but one which leads towards the biggest revolution since Kerry Packer. Again, money is at the centre of it all. The world must move and change must be constant and often, it is commerce that shows the way ahead.

Cricket runs the risk of being mired in squabbles. That is inevitable when there is a decently large pie and everyone’s interests have to be protected. A sport like football can exist without Brazil, or Germany, or Italy or England. But cricket is too small and the only way to ensure that family quarrels do not derail the sport is to ensure that there are many more than the pitiable number of teams playing the game today. That is why a franchise driven system, with more localised loyalties is so critical to the future of the game; that is why I believe cricket will inevitably go the Toyota Prius way, a hybrid with two fuels; national and local loyalties; international cricket and club cricket. Prius is an apt word actually for it means “to go before”, the predecessor of things to come.

Sri Lankan cricket embraced its economic reality by allowing its players to give precedence to the IPL over a Test and one-day series in England. There was a time when a Dias or a Mendis, or even before when a Tissera or a Tennekoon, would have given anything to be able to play a Test in England. But aspirations change with the times and really there are no rights and wrongs here. Sri Lanka needs its players to form a team and since they cannot pay them well enough, they allow players the freedom to earn a living. Some people might recoil at the idea but this is just practical economics.

... contd.