THE GOOGLY: IS TYMAL MILLS WORTH £82,000 A MATCH?

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Is Tymal Mills really worth £82,000 a match?

That’s £20,500 for each of the four overs he may be entrusted to bowl in the 17 Indian Premier League games he could end up playing this year (or £3,416 a ball!).

No wonder the tournament is capturing the column inches in the UK.

The left-arm quick, 24, has quit first-class and 50-over cricket because of his back injury, and has played only four T20Is. Three wickets at 38.66 apiece, at an economy rate of 7.25. Promising then. 
He’s also quick, for sure. Bowling Chris Gayle at Hove last June 1 was a magnificent sight.

Of course we are talking obscene amounts of money. Funding gaps in the NHS and the social care crisis in this country exist in their own world, while sports tournaments oxygenated by mega TV deals live in another. But the debate has moved on from all that. Sport grows and grows.

Ben Stokes, 25, is also counting his wedge. He netted a 1.7m deal. That is the best way ever to forget his misery in India last spring, when Carlos Brathwaite smoted him for four sixes to deny England the World T20. At least Stokes’ track record is far more compelling than Mills'…

Chris Jordan, Eoin Morgan, Chris Woakes, Jos Buttler, Sam Billings and Jason Roy are also quids in, although Alex Hales was deemed surplus to requirements. Did no one in India see his 171 against Pakistan at Trent Bridge last August? Morgan’s availability is restricted by his captaincy of England’s white-ball sides – a bitter-sweet situation for him, no doubt.

With a similar tournament to begin in England and Wales from 2020 onwards, it will be difficult to ignore the IPL now.

I followed the first year – 2008 – quite closely when the compelling Shane Warne (a snip at $450,000) led the unfancied Rajasthan Royals to an improbable win.

Interest seemed to fade, especially when, peculiarly, it was played in South Africa in 2009 when it clashed with the Indian general election.

There is no ignoring it is the most-attended cricket league in the world, however, and ranks sixth among all sports leagues, apparently.

It and the Big Bash are the templates for a T20 tournament in England and Wales from 2020, when – despite launching the format in 2003 – we play catch-up. The ECB are adamant it can capture a new audience of youngsters, women and unconverted men, played in a short, concentrated window so as not to deter superstars like Virat Kohli.

This year’s IPL runs from April 5 to May 21, once again encroaching pitilessly on our domestic game.

What can we learn from it?

While encouraging teams to play seven homegrown players is no doubt admirable and egalitarian, it does seem silly that the brilliant Kane Williamson is not likely to be in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s starting XI because captain David Warner, Moises Henriques, Ben Cutting and Mustafizur or Rashid Khan are likely to be in instead (there is also probably no starting place for Jordan).

Likewise the exciting Pat Cummins is seemingly not guaranteed a spot in Delhi Daredevils’ first-choice XI. Gujarat Lions also have a difficult choice between Aaron Finch and Roy… Would six home/five overseas be a better blend?

It is undeniably a thrilling prospect for Mills and others, though. Look at Cutting. The 30-year-old Australian has only four ODI and four T20I caps, and has not exactly set the world alight in those eight matches; but his 39 from 15 balls, and steely spell of 2 for 35 in four overs at the death for the Sunrisers in last year’s final against Royal Challengers Banglalore, were an instant passport to fame (at least in India) and fortune. 

Mills and boom, anyone?!