Franchise vs Country: A Longitudinal Study

[Kriterion_BD]

With so many T20 leagues around now and a new one popping up on what seems to be an almost monthly basis, I think its worth looking at how frequently star players turn out for their country in international fixtures. I think we'll just look at fixtures beginning Jan 1, 2024 and go on from there. I'll begin by listing the major players for each of the top 12 teams. This is of course not an exhaustive list, so I'll be adding and editing as I go along. Currently I see two main objectives of this thread. First, to see how many games star players miss by prioritising franchise over country. Secondly, to see if which players if any take that opportunity to become star players in their own right. Players missing out due to injury won't count as being absent as I'm only trying to see who sacrifices international cricket for the IPL or similar leagues.

Afghanistan
Rashid Khan | Ibrahim Zadran | Rahmanullah Gurbaz | Hashmatullah Shahidi | Mohammad Nabi | Mujeeb ur Rahman | Azmatullah Omarzai | Naveen ul Huq | Fazalhaq Farooqi | Rahmat Shah | Ikram Alikhil | Najibullah Zadran | Noor Ahmad | Afsar Zazai | Nasir Jamal | Javed Ahmedi | Amir Hamza | Karim Janat | Yamin Ahmedzai | Zahir Khan | Nijat Masood | Gulbadin Naib

Australia
Usman Khawaja | Steve Smith | Marnus Labuschagne | Travis Head | Mitchell Marsh | Glenn Maxwell | Alex Carey | Cameron Green | Marcus Stoinis | Pat Cummins | Josh Hazelwood | Mitchell Starc | Adam Zampa | Nathan Lyon | Ashton Agar | Scott Boland

Bangladesh
Tamim Iqbal | Shakib al Hasan | Mushfiqur Rahim | Mahmudullah | Liton Das | Mustafizur Rahman | Najmul Hossain Shanto | Taskin Ahmed | Ebadat Hossain | Shoriful Islam | Mehidy Hasan Miraz | Towhid Hridhoy | Mominul Haque | Mahmudul Hasan Joy | Zakir Hasan | Shadman Islam | Soumya Sarkar | Afif Hossain | Taijul Islam | Nayeem Hasan

***England
Joe Root | Jos Buttler | Johnny Bairstow | Harry Brook | Dawid Malan | Jason Roy | Moeen Ali | Adil Rashid | Ben Stokes | Liam Livingstone | David Willey | Chris Woakes | Mark Wood | Reece Topley | Zak Crawley | Ben Duckett | Ollie Pope | Ollie Robinson | Stuar Broad | James Anderson

India
Virat Kohli | Rohit Sharma | Shubman Gill | Jasprit Bumrah | Mohammed Shami | Mohammed Siraj | R Ashwin | Ravindra Jadeja | Suryakumar Yadav | Kuldeep Yadav | Shreyas Iyer | KL Rahul | Rishab Pant | Hardik Pandya | Axar Patel | Shardul Thakur

[eugene]

This will be an interesting study but will only tell half the story. The other half being how many international fixtures aren't even played anymore due to franchise leagues.

[Kriterion_BD]

Yeah IDK know how many series are cancelled...what is clear though is that there are very few 5 match ODI series now when even 10 years ago that was the norm. I'd much rather see an ODI than a T20, but I'm in the minority of course. I think the marquee series should consist of 3 Tests, 4 ODIs, and 2 T20Is.

[aydee]

There will be a fair amount of subjectivity in this though.

For example, I think it's recently been announced that Warner won't play in the ODIs vs West Indies, and will be playing ILT20. But he's been playing non-stop international cricket across formats for months on end, and it is probably fairly likely that Australia would have taken the opportunity to use that extremely low stakes series to leave him out and explore future options anyway.

Does this count?

[sam_ahm]

Fair points here and a good thread by Kriterion.

I have a feeling that 2024 and beyond will give us a glimpse of which Franchise leagues survive and which won't... I'm sure not every league will survive and this will be interesting to see... Some leagues that I think will struggle are - ILT20 - UAE, Global T20 - Canada, Major League Cricket - USA, Lanka Premier league - SL, CPL - WI and Abu Dhabi T10.

Leagues that will do well are IPL, BBL, SAT20 while the likes of PSL, BPL, Hundred, Super Smash - NZ may not do exceptionally well but will do good enough to survive.

Just my personal opinion though.

[Kriterion_BD]

There will be a fair amount of subjectivity in this though.

For example, I think it's recently been announced that Warner won't play in the ODIs vs West Indies, and will be playing ILT20. But he's been playing non-stop international cricket across formats for months on end, and it is probably fairly likely that Australia would have taken the opportunity to use that extremely low stakes series to leave him out and explore future options anyway.

Does this count?

I believe Warner is retiring after this current PAK series. Or is that only for Tests?

If a player is in a franchise league when his team is playing an international match, it counts as an absence, even if he would have been "rested" anyways.

[eugene]

New Zealand's Super Smash is a bit of an outlier in terms of T20 leagues as there is no desire to attract international marquee players. I think its survival is fairly secure as the operating costs can't be all that high anyway. It is purely a domestic T20 league and nothing more. Still well worth watching though.

[Kriterion_BD]

One would think all these T20 leagues would fail. Especially in cricket backwaters like UAE or Canada. Honestly, if the BCCI can be "protectionist" and prevent their players from playing foreign leagues...other countries should do that as well, with the exception of the IPL.

[eugene]

One would think all these T20 leagues would fail. Especially in cricket backwaters like UAE or Canada. Honestly, if the BCCI can be "protectionist" and prevent their players from playing foreign leagues...other countries should do that as well, with the exception of the IPL.

Match fixing will inevitably bring down some of these leagues. I think some are corrupt to the core.

[Kriterion_BD]

The Afghan situation has shed some light on this issue. What I didn't know was that as per current regulations, players cannot "go rogue" and say fuck the country I'm just gonna play T20 gigs. All international players need an NOC from their home board, even if they aren't centrally contracted, and even if they have retired from the game. That leaves considerable power with the home boards vis a vis the franchise leagues. Its just that so far, most countries haven't really enforced it.

The BCB has apparently told Shoriful and Taskin they cannot even sign up for the IPL auction draft...personally I highly doubt the IPL would buy them anyways. But the BCB has put its foot down, which is good to see.