Hello and welcome to Stumped, your intercontinental hit of news, features,
and debate from the quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell and I'm in Nottingham this
week on a bit of a road trip for one of The Hundred matches. I'm here in a hotel
where the Trent Rockets are staying and it was nice to catch up with a few people last night,
including the coach Andy Flower - the ex-England coach, of course. At the same time, it's nice to
know there's a Test match being played at Lord's with the South African men in town. That won't be
the case this time next year because the schedule clears August of international cricket and it's
being left fully open for The Hundred. The men's Ashes is going to be fitted into June and July.
Whether that's then going to be the case going forward every single year, we will wait to see.
I think it's a huge shame that there wouldn't be any international cricket, men's or women's,
in August at the height of the summer when kids are on school holidays, because yes, they might
get a Hundred game in their locality but that might only be once in a couple of weeks or so.
They need some other cricket to watch as well and make The Hundred the gateway into Test cricket
and the longer form, but at the moment, we've got both so we're happy.
Hi, it's Jim Maxwell for the ABC in Sydney and the joke at the moment has been not about cricket here, but rugby league.
The boss of Rugby League went on to a press conference and said, 'I'm pleased to be able to tell you that the
Rugby League Grand Final this year will be played in Melbourne.' He said, 'No, that's a joke! That's a
joke!' It's going to be played in Sydney. So that's probably the funniest thing that's happened here.
The cricket season's still a month away... I'm Sunil Gupta for All India Radio in New Delhi,
where the big, big news is something we've been speculating about in almost every show when the
IPL comes up, and that is the women's IPL which has just been announced a couple of days ago
is going to be in March 2023. There are going to be five teams and some of the big names
from the men's IPL are looking for women's teams as well. There could be a sixth team,
I believe, because the response has been so great. It's going to be one month long
and five or six teams. So, everything that we were wishing for is going to happen at least in
the women's IPL. It's going to be termed, as I'm sure you can understand, the WIPL.
So, no surprises there, but the WIPL is going to be there, Ladies and Gents,
and it's going to be there in March 2023. That is news to be celebrated because finally India
have woken up to the possibilities that the women's game can offer in the country
and so the degree to which India's women and women's team have had to stand up almost on
their own in these international events to say 'look at what we can do.' They haven't yet won a gold,
as it was at the Commonwealth Games or a world trophy. But surely that'll come and if they've got
this greater depth of professionalism behind them, those numbers will grow, the depth will grow,
the experience in high pressure matches will grow. So, fabulous news. Now, as I mentioned,
I am at The Hundred this week. But it seems scarcely believable that a new and even
faster paced and probably fair to say quirkier cricket tournament is about to begin next week.
The 6ixty is what it's called and it's being used to kick off the Caribbean Premier League
season and in some ways, it's what you might expect. You might have inferred from
the name that it's a 60-ball tournament - a T10 format, so 10 overs of six balls each. However,
there are some pretty strange twists. Sunil, you've been having a little look at the rules,
haven't you? What have you taken away as the headline twist to the rules or the laws?
I remember reading about the roaring 60's when I was a child about the... In geography indeed I assume it
will be the roaring 60's. But let me tell you the difference in this from any other cricket
that we normally watch is that each batting team has six wickets, rather than the usual 10.
The batting teams can unlock a third Powerplay over by hitting two sixes in their first 12 balls
which I dare say, prediction is going to come down to about the first 10 balls very soon.
And if teams fail to bowl their 10 overs within 45 minutes, a fielder will be removed. Not just
moved out of the circle or whatever, removed for the final six balls. To add a bit of e-gaming
to this entire scenario, is that fans will be able to vote for a mystery free-hit online. What that's
going to be is a mystery. It's a lot of changes, isn't it.
There's one rule from now that could easily translate into the Test match game, I tell you and that is to remove one fielder if
they go over time because the number of times that a Test match day doesn't get those overs in.
That's one quirky rule of the 6ixty. It's another short form tournament, isn't it where the focus is on
short, sharp, of the moment entertainment. That's what I'm enjoying of The Hundred, the matches
themselves in the moment, it's great fun. I can't say that I come away particularly remembering
key battles or really memorable moments. You remember who hit the first 100 of The Hundred
and Will Jack's getting the highest score of The Hundred following on from Will Smead,
Alana King's taken the first hat-trick for the women in The Hundred. Moments like that I remember, but
it doesn't feel like it's a lasting legacy; it's not that some sustenance, if you like,
the narratives provide from the longer form of the game. Jim, I'm guessing it's not going to
take over from The 6ixty... isn't going to take over from international cricket as your favourite form
of the game and certainly not from Test matches. But you have been speaking to
somebody who is a very big fan of The 6ixty. I have indeed. The Universe Boss, Chris Gayle.
He's the ambassador for The 6ixty, and I started off asking him why the fans should be so excited about it.
The fans are already excited about it and that's why they should. They
are already excited about The 6ixty because I know guys from the UK flying in for The 6ixty
and I get a lot of questions about it. It's just the new rules and everyone's excited to see how
it will work. Will it play off accordingly based on the rules The 6ixty's got? Everybody's looking
forward to that as well. The good thing about it, we'll have our big players playing in
that tournament as well. We have international players playing as well. It's only three days,
so it's very short and spicy. It's going to be phenomenal and something totally different.
Do some of the innovations that The 6ixty's bringing to the table have a place with modifying
T20 cricket? What would you do with T20 cricket, if anything, to improve it?
T20 cricket is fine but when I look at The 6ixty, it can be like an Olympics, pretty much. It's a shorter form of T20,
so the Olympics can add into different world champions or however you want to put it. At the
Olympics, you can have that sort of thing and it can be something you can play for a gold medal,
so it's something they can look at as well. With the rules as well, it's spicy, it's innovative.
It's very good and so interesting. A lot can happen with it. What about this trophy? It's called
the Universe Boss trophy. How do you feel about that? Listen mate that's the biggest trophy in
the entire history of cricket. I can tell you that for sure. There's nothing bigger than that
trophy. That's the biggest trophy. Not even a World Cup trophy is bigger than the Universe Boss
trophy. I'm telling you that straight up right now. You sound like the Muhammad Ali of cricket.
Yeah. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Part one of Jim with Chris Gayle.
The Universe Boss trophy. I had to laugh. Does he mean there's nothing bigger, Jim, in terms of
physical size or is he actually talking stature? I'm hoping he was talking about the physical size!
It looks like a big trophy, that is for sure. Not quite as big as Chris Gayle, but he's certainly a good salesman, isn't he?
One interesting thing I took from that, Jim was when he mentioned the Olympics,
because this does put another form of cricket on the table. When the ICC are looking at
putting cricket into the Olympics, we've had T20 cricket in the Commonwealth Games. You've got
The Hundred tournament going on in the UK at the moment. And then The 6ixty is even more condensed.
If it is more like... this is the three-day festival of cricket, which you could see perhaps extending
It's another format perhaps for the ICC... It will be on the table for them to consider. I doubt that
there's more diversity in cricket - good or bad - than in any other sport. There'll be no surprise
if we had 6ixty, a 70, a 77 Sunset Strip. Sounds good to me. I remember the television
show. Anyway, I'm sure they'll come up with something. If they get the Americans involved,
as they will, because there's going to be a lot of money coming from that part of the world into
cricket. Whether it's before, during, or after the Olympics, it's all about to occur. The thing is,
do we really need this competition? I'm not so sure. Anyway, that's a question I put to Chris.
What the people need to understand is that the game has changed. It's business-orientated now.
It's not so more detailed in sporting [terms]. When you look what's happening around the world,
even with these new leagues starting as well. We've talked about The 6ixty, you can see it with The Hundred
as well, so everybody sees the bigger picture, being innovative with the game as well.
The game is spreading more to the business side of things. It's beneficial to the players as well,
so you have to look at that as a point of view as well. We also have to put on a league that
will be beneficial from it as well. Once they get excitement and once they get the people involved
in it and to have the people like what's happening as well, then it will be something huge just like
an IPL. I don't want people to think that the game is actually changing too much. We have to look at
the bigger picture. It's all about business. The whole gentleman's game kind of changed a bit. It's
not really that gentleman's sport we used to have knowledge of just saying hey, it's a gentleman's sport.
It's a business sport and you're going to have people pumping money into these new events.
The players are going to have to choose what they want to do at the end of the day.
You say business, but I get the feeling you're still think Test cricket's worth playing. It's the number one
form of the game and there's a lot of tradition, not just business, around the world of cricket.
Test cricket is the ultimate. Test cricket is number one. But when you look at what's happening
with Test cricket now, who are the countries getting the most Test matches? You have to
look at that as well. It's business. A team like the West Indies and South Africa play maybe six
Tests a year. England, India and Australia play 15 Test matches. Those teams are bringing in money!
So, the lower ranked teams suffer. They are suffering because they're not getting the same
amount of games or the same treatment as India, England or Australia would get. It's unfair
to those teams. It's very unfair. That's why I stress the game has changed and it's a business.
The lower ranked teams suffer and those teams that I just mentioned, they make the bulk of the money
and their players get looked after perfectly and the other guys struggle in that department. So,
is 50-over cricket the one format of the game that's under threat through the squeeze of competitions?
I think so, yeah. You play so much T20 cricket that when you start to play 50 over
it's like damn! It feels like the 50 overs take the entire day, just like a Test match!
It feels like that because you play so much T20 and it's like bang, bang,
bang and the game's finished. When it gets to that 50 overs now, it's so dragged out a bit as well
and a bit boring to an extent. Then you have to accelerate back at the end.
I think that's what happened, so it's a bit tricky now. Now what about you? You're 43
years of age. The Universe Boss. What are your plans for the future as a cricketer?
I'm in preparation, I'm playing The 6ixty for sure, but I'm not playing the CPL. Where
cricket stands, I'm still playing some cricket. I'm actually coming to Australia to play some
club games. Definitely, International cricket is pretty much off the radar. I have some Legends
League coming up in September. I will join those master classes and rub some shoulders
with them as well. I still have some cricket to play. I'm still young, pretty hot and tempting,
the best body in the world, so why not play and give the fans a few more things to cheer about?
That is the former West Indies captain Chris Gayle speaking to our very own Jim Maxwell. He's always
a sort of remarkable listen, isn't he? He can be very inconsistent in his views. I do remember one
time a while ago him saying he wouldn't have been so sad if Test cricket died out, but he's very
much saying Test cricket is still the number one. He values his 100-odd caps. He regrets not having
won a 50-over World Cup with the West Indies. Yet albeit now saying it just feels like a slow,
slow, tired old format when you're used to playing bang, bang 20-over cricket all the time. Some
serious points in there as well, which I did take and Sunil, one of those being about cricket being
a business game now. And you just wonder how much money, particularly from tournament like The 6ixty
goes back into West Indies cricket or building it up, or is it just all about the franchises? Or the
people who've invested in that their own personal pockets? Well, I'm sure there's going to be some
sort of distribution mechanism, as indeed it is with the IPL or any other franchise cricket.
I think the other point that he made about this being a business. Business as you all know is
that famous saying; you give the people what they want, and they'll pay for it.
So, the question really is to see is this novelty, which will wear off very quickly because there are
other formats to follow. And I think the proof of the pudding is going to be not in eating, but it's
going to be in the longevity of something like The 6ixty, or do you say is The 6ixty too much?
Let's make it, as Jim said, the 40's or the 77's or whatever it's going to be. But the principle of
The other principal of business is something I've said before and I'll say it again. That's the good
thing about this is that it gives a lot of the fringe players, people who don't really have a
career in international cricket. Look at India. There are thousands of cricketers, but really
only 11 can play in the international team. So, the IPL was a very big window to see some
young talent and to give them livelihoods. You know, and I have spoken about this before, you
know the backgrounds they come from where their parents were cooking in tin shacks or there were
daily wage labourers and so on. So, I think it's a terrific thing for them. But the international
game is going to be the pinnacle of anybody's career. If you play international cricket,
what are you going to find? Other people like him who are past their prime, if I dare say that,
in their retirement years are going to be taking this. I think it's great for them because they
still carry an image. A large part of this game is image to have young people that you know, and at
least some of them participating in the game. So that's going to be the crowd puller. You're not
just going to go and see only some unknowns. So, I think that is really where the business aspect
comes in. It gives them livelihoods and makes them see the world and that' s a terrific thing.
If the spectators like it, well then who's to argue. Somewhere along the line, you must have
the danger in your mind; Is this dumbing it down too much? And when he mentioned this being in the
Olympics, my heart shrank quite honestly. If we have something like this in the Olympics,
I don't think the Olympics I think the Olympics should have something in cricket, most definitely,
but not this. I think the real McCoy will always be international cricket.
That is all we've got time for on this week's Stumped on All India Radio. If you've missed
any of that interview you can go back and listen again on the podcast. We're on Twitter,
as well. We're @BBCWSSport, and use #BBCStumped and you can in fact watch that interview with
Chris Gayle as well on YouTube. Go to the BBC World Service's YouTube channel. My thanks to
Sunil Gupta and Jim Maxwell and to all of you for listening and we'll see you next week. Bye bye.