Rise of new format will cement Tests' lofty status: Maxwell

Wanted ... Twenty20 owners in Australia, New Zealand,
Sri Lanka, South Africa and England are chasing Brett Lee, who already
plays for NSW (left), Wellington and Kings XI Punjab. Photo: Getty Images









ONE of the people who has helped orchestrate the rise of
Twenty20 cricket from a mid-summer night's fun in county cricket to
global phenomenon said the advent of more T20 Leagues will preserve
Test cricket as the most prestigious form of the game.




Leading player agent and sports marketer Neil Maxwell is
adamant the day is fast approaching when Tests would be played around
Twenty20 competitions, and he predicts this would make a Test cap even
more valuable.




''Playing for your country is still the greatest honour,
and it should be held high,'' Maxwell, a former NSW batsman said.
''However, country versus country is an antiquated model. If you look at
FIFA their football competitions are based around franchise
competitions, and they can have universal appeal.



Advertisement: Story continues below










''People in Australia might not watch a Test series
between New Zealand and Sri Lanka on television, but they would watch a
game with two teams that involved Paul Collingwood, Sachin Tendulkar,
Ricky Ponting, Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan] and Brett Lee.




''The biggest issue is opening the Twenty20 leagues to
more players. In the Indian Premier League only four imports can play,
so it's not a true franchise model. In English football Arsenal, on
average, puts one English player on the pitch each game. Apply that
concept to Twenty20 and you could have a balanced competition where
Singapore could play Hong Kong or New York.''




The age of the freelance player has already begun. While
Brett Lee has been focusing his energies on leading Australia's pace
attack at next month's World Cup, Twenty20 franchise owners in
Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, England and even the US
have accountants and lawyers drawing up a contracts for him.




He's not alone. Indeed, his NSW teammate David Warner
already plays for four franchises including NSW, Northern Districts (New
Zealand), Delhi (India) and Middlesex (United Kingdom).




''There has to remain a focus for young players to play
Test cricket,'' Lee said. ''But the crowd knows what it wants, we had
20,000 people turn out to watch the Blues play South Australia in the
middle of the week and that would show people have a taste for it. My
focus has been to make the Australian World Cup first XI. I want to lead
the attack, and while that is the priority, when you look beyond that
there's potential to do things in India, England, and even the USA and
it's exciting.''




While Cricket Australia has unveiled its revolutionary
Big Bash for 2011-12, Maxwell said if the ICC full member nations
embraced the franchise league formula around the world, it would
preserve the traditional form of their game.




''England and Australia are the two nations keeping Test
cricket alive from a spectator's view,'' he said. ''I love Test cricket,
as a player I tried to play it but was never good enough, but what the
ICC nations have to realise is players will soon have to make a decision
whether they want a $2 million five-year-deal to play Twenty20, or a
baggy green cap.''




Maxwell, who recently brokered a deal between Cricket New
Zealand and the US to form a Twenty20 league in America said economics -
and popularity - would eventually weigh in the modified game's favour.




''There are Test series out there with nil substance,''
he said. ''The there are those, like the Ashes, that are prized trophies
and they should be valued. However, it is not growing the sport beyond
eight or nine markets. The appeal of Twenty20 is it is entertainment
based around cricket. It has more appeal and has the potential to crack
markets Test cricket and the 50-over game hasn't so far managed to.''