“There is a danger that cricket will follow football”: Eoin Morgan fears T20 franchise leagues might pose threat to international Cricket in near future

Just three days after celebrating only their second T20 World Cup title triumph, majority members of the England men’s Cricket side had no option but to stay in Australia to take part in the ongoing three-match ODI series against the hosts.

The tight scheduling of international matches has been a talking point ever since Cricketing action has returned back to a state of normalcy post COVID-19, but to not have ample days to revel in a World Cup glory certainly can frustrate the winners, to say the least.

While players like Moeen Ali explicitly termed the scheduling as ‘horrible’ with regard to the aforementioned series, former England skipper Eoin Morgan has a more pragmatic take on the same, and feels that the playing window can never fall vacant as one team will definitely replace the other to get going with the scheduling.

Morgan does believe that more players might opt to play one or two formats only, just like Ben Stokes did a few months ago, by deciding to retire from the ODI format altogether due to jam-packed scheduling.

Eoin Morgan fears T20 franchise leagues might pose threat to international Cricket

With various T20 leagues around the world becoming a common phenomenon year-after-year, Morgan reckons that the developments have meant that even the non-Test playing nations are insisting upon playing more limited Overs matches, thereby posing a threat to the future of Test Cricket in particular.

The former Southpaw batter exclaims that there is perhaps a danger that Cricket might well follow the Football route, where club/Champions league championships will be right up there on the players’ priority list and representing the nation might not become the driving source of their inspiration.

“You only get the right answer if you ask the right question. The right question is, ‘Where will the game be in 10 years?’ England will play Test cricket, and we are lucky that people still enjoy playing for their country and take pride in that… but if I’m honest I think that there is a danger that cricket will follow football and go down the club/Champions League route,” remarked Morgan.

The 36-year-old also came up with the example of the West Indies team, who have lost a host of their top-players to franchise Cricket, and with the board now been forced to rebuild their side.