Fight fire with fire

Since accepting the position of chief executive of the PCA (Professional Cricketers' Association) in December I have seen the cricket landscape change more in three months than it probably has in the previous 30 years. The question that was immediately on my lips was: can we have increased wealth without harming the health of our game?

Dressing rooms around the counties are full of professional cricketers looking forward to another season, but in every one of them are players casting their eyes further afield to the riches of Indian Twenty20 cricket. And who can blame them?

In any profession the opportunity to maximise earning potential is a natural right of the employee. We have seen sports stars, particularly in the United States and more recently in European football, behave as "free agents". This has rarely applied to cricketers, for whom club loyalty is perhaps stronger, and the most recent rules from the ECB ensure that restrictions apply if a player decides to play for the Indian Cricket League.

The huge investment in Indian Twenty20 cricket provides potential benefits for our players. Undoubtedly both their leagues have significantly increased the market value of the player and for the first time since the 1970s they provide alternative employment opportunities for the leading stars.

Importantly, the rapid emergence of the Indian Premier League has challenged the game's administrators. This is a good thing. It forces us all to make improvements to our own products and services that we deliver for the cricketer and for the game's followers. All the players I have met on our pre-season rounds are in favour of the increased investment in the game and the personal benefits it brings. But before the players rush off to India, we must look at the potential impacts these actions could have on the health of our domestic game.

Some would say the Indian approach to setting up these leagues has been predatory. The country's financial control of the international game has just been given a further cash injection that benefits the Indian board and its ICC-sanctioned IPL. If it was predatory before, how would the Indian board behave if it wanted to pick off England's leading players?

Our domestic game relies on the substantial revenues of the broadcasting deal. Should events in India threaten this, then our game has serious problems that would affect all professional cricketers and the investment in grass-roots programmes. Losing top players to India would lower the value of any future broadcasting agreement.

Twenty20 has been a big financial success in England and Wales. It has attracted a new, younger audience to the game, growing our supporter base. If India can create a global Twenty20 extravaganza that increases the number of followers, then congratulations to them. But let us take advantage at the same time. The opportunity lies much closer home than Mumbai and New Delhi - in north London.

In May 2007 the PCA released a document called Tougher Structures to Test County Players and many of the recommendations have been adopted in four-day cricket for 2008. That document also contained some interesting ideas for the improvement of our own Twenty20 competition. These included rescheduling of the tournament to fit within school holidays, and a mini-break within the season to accommodate the event.

Perhaps we should go further, develop our own domestic tournament as the world's premier Twenty20 club event with the finest international players participating for our own clubs and invite the domestic champions from the other Test-playing nations to participate in a Champions League-style Twenty20 festival. England (and Wales) has one unique advantage in that it is the only Test-playing nation that plays from April to September, so our summer does not conflict with the others'. This means the vast majority of international players from other countries are potentially available during our season. If we could use this advantage alongside and create the leading domestic Twenty20 tournament in the world, then we have a commercial opportunity that would enable us to take advantage of the huge appetite for cricket in Asia.

In short, this could reduce the threat of losing our top players to India during our season; we could attract the finest international players to our shores; and we could significantly enhance the appeal of our broadcasting rights on offer.