David Leggat: Rebel cricket league proposal not surprising

David Warner and Michael Clarke are names linked to a rebel Twenty20 cricket league. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Opinion

Call it an obvious development out of an unstable world environment, but talk of a global T20 competition is hardly a surprise.

Ever since the International Cricket Council ceded authority in a craven fashion to three of its full member nations, India, Australia and England - the latter two effectively clinging onto the coat tails of the financial juggernaut because they figured better to be at the party than standing in line outside - there has been resentment at that turn of events.

The talk of more international fixtures is all well and good; the morality of the business is quite another story.

Read: Multi-million dollar pay days a lure for rebel cricket tournament

When countries feel they're being treated as serfs, this is what happens, even if the proposed new venture is out of India and bankrolled by Indian money.

There is a feverish tone to the rumours. Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket revisited; a variation on the ill-starred and short-lived Indian Cricket League of 2007-09.

The cricket world is a far different place than it was when the big, bluff Australian took on what was then the Australian Cricket Board in 1977 after missing out on television rights.

T20 leagues proliferate around the world, from the Caribbean to New Zealand.

Ten Sports, a subsidiary of Zee TV, which is owned by the Essel Group, has contracts with South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe, so it's hardly likely they'd be out to undermine the product they're screening.

Would New Zealand's best players be lured? Maybe. Money roars these days.

Players disappear for a few weeks in between national engagements to fulfill personal arrangements.

Several New Zealand players, led by captain Brendon McCullum, will arrive in England just before the first test against England at Lord's this month as they have Indian Premier League deals. Ideal? Absolutely not. But that's the market place.

Essel Group owner Subhash Chandra's motives - other than making a buckload of money - will become clearer with time.

Getting a grip on plans is a bit like grasping fog, other than vague talk of entering new parts of the world, particularly, inevitably, the United States.

Questions like who, what, when, where and how will be answered. The why? That's already abundantly clear.