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.
''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.''
