ILT20 can do better for UAE cricket but Graeme Smith is wrong to say it is not good for the game

Former South Africa captain turned SA20 commissioner criticised Emirates-based franchise competition on eve of new season

The ILT20 is packed with international talent, with each team only required to have a minimum of two local-based players on the pitch during games. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Graeme Smith never was one for standing on ceremony. So, just as the DP World International League T20 was running through the final dress rehearsals for its opening one ahead of its third season, the former South Africa captain was only too happy to air his views.

Smith is now the commissioner of the SA20, a T20 event whose season clashes almost exactly with that of the ILT20. And he certainly knows which one he prefers.

“We’re a South African league, with a majority of South African players and our ultimate goal is to benefit South African players,” Smith said.

“We’ve been built up against ILT20, so it’s very difficult for me to not come across like I’m bad-mouthing them. But I do feel like a league like that is not good for the game; that there’s that many international players required to build a team; there’s no investment back into local cricket.

“That is a challenge for the world game and something that needs to be managed going forward.”

Why don’t you tell us what you really think, Graeme?

On the eve of ILT20’s Season 3, Tom Moody, the director of cricket for Desert Vipers, provided the most reasoned response to Smith’s spikiness.

“He’s obviously got the right to his opinion, and he’s protecting his own patch, so to speak, in the SA20 and the success of that tournament,” Moody said

“When you have two tournaments that are running parallel you're always going to have that sort of critical eye on your opposition. But I think if Graeme spent time on the ground here and saw the growth of the domestic game here, I think he might have a slightly different view in what the impact of this tournament has had.

“I understand that having nine overseas players is on the heavy side with regards to other leagues around the world. But what people have got to understand is that this is an emerging country.

“This is a country that is looking to build their game from grassroots upwards. Something that we're very proud of as a franchise at Desert Vipers is the work that we're doing right from school level, with the programmes we have in place all year round, right through to seeing the improvement of [the first team] players.”

Smith’s offensive continued. “We’re a full member nation,” Smith said. “Our priority is to put on a global league but to benefit South African cricket. That’s important for us.”

That feels like thinly veiled antipathy not just because ILT20 is a competitor, but because of where it is played.

Associate nations – such as the UAE - should be allowed to try to grow the game in their own countries. How they go about it, though, is the critical issue.

Smith has a good point: there are too few UAE players involved in the ILT20. And the playing conditions only serve to limit their chances to make a genuine contribution further still.

The league has special dispensation from the ICC – whose offices overlook the fields where the ILT20 teams practice at Dubai Sports City – to have just two locally based players per XI.

The impact player rule has been retained this season. That means a substitution can be made during the game to bring a on specialist batter or bowler as the match situation suits.

Even though two UAE players must still be on the field, in almost every game last year, the impact player rule served to limit the involvement of the local player.

It doesn’t need to be that way. Other Associate countries are building franchise competitions based on local talent, complemented by judicious overseas signings.

They are not exactly like markets, but the Nepal Premier League concluded recently and was a great success. Each playing XI in that tournament had a majority of Nepal-based players, with the odd star involved like Shikhar Dhawan, Martin Guptill and Jimmy Neesham.

The NPL matches were played out in front of packed crowds in Kathmandu, even though most of the talent on show was home-bred.

The players of the UAE national team, by contrast, enjoy nothing like the public recognition here that the home-based players of the NPL do it Nepal. As such, it is understandable the organisers would want as many household names from overseas on the field as they can get away with.

But the UAE players need to be backed. They are no less capable than Nepal’s. The national team did, after all, beat Nepal to a place in the Asia Cup last year.

Whether that was down to what the UAE players have learnt via two seasons of minimal involvement in the ILT20 is questionable.

“I’m sure the league have got an eye into the future to expanding the number of domestic players that will be playing in this tournament, but you’ve got to learn how to crawl before you walk, before you run,” Moody said.

“It’s a little bit different when you have an established Test playing nation in South Africa to be able to say well we only need X or Y number of overseas players to complement an established domestic system.

“We don't have that established domestic system to the point Australia has, or South Africa has, or England has. But we hope in five to 10 years we can look back and think well the ILT20 teams like Desert Vipers have played a critical role in fast tracking the game here and the in the region.”

Often, players come to the ILT20 and offer lip-service about giving back to the game, and helping develop UAE cricket. But Sikandar Raza, the Dubai Capitals captain, is well qualified to judge.

The Zimbabwe all-rounder was the player of the tournament last season as the Capitals finished as runners-up. Before he established himself as one of the leading stars in international cricket, he spent time as a little-known overseas player in UAE domestic cricket.

He has many friends within the game here. When he was asked the qualities of the Capitals’ four UAE players ahead of the new season, he was immediately able to name check each, and offer a run down on their qualities. It might be easy to assume not all of the captains would have been able to do the same with the local players in their own ranks.

And Raza thinks the ILT20 is helping progress the game in the Emirates. “The UAE players play a huge part in the combination of the teams and also for their own growth and development as well,” Raza said.

“A tournament like ILT20 has suddenly raised the standard of cricket in the UAE and for the local boys as well. It is nice to see the pool of UAE players is growing.”