T20 inventor issues warning: no point keeping traditional cricket alive just for the sake of it

It has become impossible to calculate how many people have profited from Twenty20 cricket certainly among them are Lalit Modi, Lachlan Murdoch, Andrew Flintoff, and even the Washington Redskins cheerleaders but Stuart Robertson has yet to see a cent from the game he invented. And he never will.

Hardly a soul that walks past Robertson each day is aware that he is responsible for the most significant formatting change in cricket's history.

Not that he is seeking such esteem, but what a contrast it was when the Indian Premier League was launched to fireworks, music and champagne - popping among Bollywood glitterati and billionaires while Robertson was gazing over spreadsheets in an office in Southampton.

Doing my job
Meanwhile, the IPL has generated millions for owners and investors who do not know Robertson or what he has done. What tips you off that Robertson is a man of great significance is his energy and scope of thought. But he shies away from the credit, which is why his face is not familiar.

At the time he created T20, Robertson was marketing manager for the England and Wales Cricket Board, and his task was to find a solution to dwindling interest in the domestic league.

Given u00a3250,000 (Approx Rs 1.9 crore), Robertson and free-to-air television broadcaster Channel Four, which then screened cricket, set about polling 35 different research groups of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, demographics and interests.

''We knew that shorter forms of the game were around, I didn't invent that, no one really invented it let's face it, 20-over cricket has been around for years and years played in midweek leagues and lower cricket,'' says Robertson, now the commercial director of the Rose Bowl cricket ground.

''But what we were able to do is piece the two things together because the research told us cricket is just a bit inaccessible for people, and by that they meant: it was too long for those who were young and had short attention spans or were busy at work; it's played at a time when I'm supposed to be at work or school; it's a bit boring, there's not a lot of razzmatazz in it.

''So all of these problems geared up to this thing about inaccessibility.

Too long
"Cricket was just not easy for them to come and see. One of the main things was that it just lasted too long.
''I didn't dream up 20-over cricket, that already existed, I pieced a lot of it together and actually did the work that allowed it to come to life.''

And come to life it has, but some believe Robertson has created Frankenstein. Twenty20 has heralded a new era of earning potential for players and sport-savvy businessmen and women, and with that comes problems.

Player greed is high on the game's agenda, with Flintoff recently turning his back on England to earn more playing in domestic T20 tournaments (he is signed to Chennai in the IPL for $US1.55 million a year). Corporate greed is also an issue, with Allen Stanford tying Robertson's former employer to a bi-lateral deal for a $US20 million West Indian tournament that has shred the island nation's cricketing structures following revelations of the businessman's allegedly astronomical roots.

Others from the United States and India have tried to muscle in with their own tournaments.

But Robertson's prediction for the five-day game is alarming. ''The people who should decide which format of the game survives are the customers, the spectators. Cricket shouldn't exist just for the guys who play the game, cricket is entertainment, a sport, a leisure, a diversion from people's lives. It's the people who should be voting, with their feet and wallets. Over time they will decide what's popular.

Need to be bold
''I don't want Test cricket just to keep the record books going, because if we did that we might end up playing in front of half-full grounds and cricket might become less popular. The sponsors then aren't so keen to advertise, TV companies aren't so keen to look at it.

''I think cricket has got to be bold enough to respond to market demands, and if it means in the future T20 continues to grow and there's a bit less Test cricket but the Test cricket that is played is full-on every time and means something every game well, great.''

Asked then if he could foresee a day when the likes of West Indies and New Zealand no longer played Tests, Robertson says: ''It would be a real shame if that ever happened, but could I envisage it? I guess so.

''Look at attendances throughout the world, they are declining. Part of me wants cricket to keep that traditional angle, but on the other hand we can't allow that to happen if it means cricket becomes less popular.''

One of the shrewdest businessmen in the game, Modi seized on the T20 format to create the IPL, which he mirrored on the England's Premier League, and harbours ambition that one day his version will outgrow the inspiration. He canvassed national boards to allow players to compete, invited the mega-rich and mega-famous from his homeland to invest, and had an entertainment package so good for TV that the rights were re-negotiated for $2 billion.

Some international players are earning in six weeks of the IPL more than triple their annual national contracts.

And some players, like NSW all-rounder Moises Henriques, did not even need an international cap. Kolkata were happy to fork out $450,000 a year for Henriques before he had debuted for Australia. NSW contracts start from $44,000 and offer a maximum $120,000.

Media companies, player agents and corporations have all benefited from T20, while the Redskins ladies will never forget their ''exciting and irreplaceable'' stint as cheerleaders for Bangalore, receiving an all-expenses paid trip to India and appearance fees at grounds in the country.

It's understandable, but discouraging, that Robertson missed his share of the pie. Yet he stresses the need for independence, saying: ''It wasn't as though there was a patent on it which could've been done, and to be perfectly honest if someone had come to the ECB at the time and said, 'I've got the answer to all these problems in cricket, but I've got a patent on it and it will cost you so much money to do it', it would never have happened.

''I never imagined this, we only had our attention on what was happening in this country to keep cricket popular. We didn't have an eye on the world, whether IPL was going to take off, whether international Twenty20 was going to work.

''It is a surprise as to what has happened, but if you look with hindsight, because it worked so well here people told us what they wanted, such a simple concept, simple to put right, which we put right why shouldn't it work overseas?''

Courtesy: Sydney Morning Herald