Stewart calls for counties to receive IPL payments and introduce cut-off to prevent late departures

SAM MORSHEAD: The late call-up of Tom Curran to the IPL has left Surrey’s director of cricket scrambling to adjust his plans, and brought into even sharper focus the issue of balancing the needs of players, their parent clubs and their franchises

^{Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart}

Alec Stewart wants to see counties receive extra protection from the franchise T20 behemoth, both on and off the pitch.

The late call-up of Tom Curran to the IPL has left Surrey’s director of cricket scrambling to adjust his plans ahead of his side’s County Championship campaign, and brought into even sharper focus the issue of balancing the needs of players, their parent clubs and their franchises in the 21st-century game.

It is a subject which is front and centre on the domestic agenda.

Stewart was among those high-ranking coaches, representing 17 of the 18 counties, who attended a summit meeting at Edgbaston last week to discuss how the English game should move forward, with a stated aim to ensure the continued health of red-ball cricket.

Speaking at his county’s pre-season media day, he described the changes he would like to see implemented, starting with a trickle down of compensation payments from the ECB.

^{Tom Curran has left for the IPL}

“We have discovered that the ECB have been receiving 10 per cent of the overall contract a player gets from the IPL for a number of years and this year it is 20 per cent,” Stewart said, though The Cricketer understands that, while an increase has been mooted, the actual terms of the arrangement have not yet been formally agreed.

“So should the ECB be keeping that? Or should that money come back to the county who are the ones who miss out? It should come back to the county.

“If there is a fair amount of money that is going from the IPL to the ECB in compensation then why does that not end up back at the counties? Well of course it should.  

“I hope that it will now be looked at now that we are aware that this has been happening, which we weren’t before, so I would expect the ECB now to look at it and I personally believe all that money should come back to the county if you are not an ECB-contracted player.”

The counties are understood to have been consulted when the ECB’s policy on the payments, which have been made since 2011 to all overseas governing bodies of players involved in the IPL, was last up for review in 2014.

Stewart advocates the notion of the ECB retaining half for those players on full central contracts and 25 per cent for those on white-ball deals.

For all others, he says, the counties should be paid in full “because of the money that has been invested” in domestic talent.

Those funds are currently centrally pooled and redispersed via various projects, some of which benefit the counties, including in recent years the marketing of the T20 Blast.

“You can also second guess to an extent who is going to get picked up in the auction. Therefore, when we are doing our recruiting that money comes back into the cricket budget which then allows us to try and second guess who you will be missing and trying and recruit replacements or bring in two new academy players on to your staff knowing that extra money is coming in,” Stewart said.  

^{David Willey's departure is a blow for Yorkshire}

“Not to have the money makes me wonder why not? And to lose players as late as we lost Tom we have no time to find a replacement.”

Curran received his summons from Kolkata Knight Riders on April 2, just 17 days before Surrey’s competitive opener against Hampshire at The Oval. Surrey would have had the option to deny him the chance to join up with the franchise, though whether or not that would be a worthwhile man-management exercise is debatable.

Yorkshire, whose director of cricket Martyn Moxon has been a prominent voice on the subject, have also been hit hard by the recent departures of David Willey and Liam Plunkett to Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils respectively.

“I hope in time this will be looked at,” Stewart said. “The IPL is not going anywhere – I fully understand players wanting to be part of it because one it’s a good competition and second it helps your bank balance.  All I think needs to be looked at – and we had that directors of cricket meeting last week – we talked about a cut-off.

“If you get picked up in the auction that’s fine, it’s at the end of February. You’ve let the player enter the auction and if they get picked up that’s fine – that is six or seven weeks before the start of the season.

“The problem is when you get the phone calls I got for Tom and Martyn Moxon got for Willey and Plunkett.  Your planning goes out of the window.”

"The issue is who controls the players, are they our players?  They are under contract for 12 months. Or are they IPL players?"

Stewart wants a review of the wording of the No Objection Certificates issued by the ECB, which permit English players to take part in the tournament.

“How it should work is that IPL phone the ECB to ask about a player and the ECB talk to the county.  That’s how it is meant to work – it doesn’t though because the franchise will ring the player or agent direct to see if they are interested and once they are told the money they always are – so you have to let them go.  

“So I think a cut off date for players being called up is needed – whatever that may be – ideally a month before the Championship starts. Then everyone knows that even if you don’t get picked up in the auction, there’s a three or four week window after that to get picked up but once that has gone, you can’t then go and play.  

“Tom will come back a better player so I don’t have a real issue with it but the issue is who controls the players, are they our players?  They are under contract for 12 months. Or are they IPL players? I would argue they are ours, we should have more control than just saying ‘I guess you are going then’.”

Currently, players who fly out to India for the tournament in April in May are obliged to repay one per cent of their annual salary for every day they spend in the IPL, up to a total of 21 days, and 0.7 per cent thereafter.

Stewart would prefer to see a daily rate introduced, whereby those taking part in overseas T20 competitions pay 1/365th of their salary back to their parent clubs for each day they spend away. Whether that would be workable alongside the receipt of compensation payments, is unclear.

“I think that would be fair,” he said. “The player shouldn’t be hit horribly. Obviously if they are not with us they wouldn’t expect to be paid by us so paying back a day rate makes sense – as long as we are getting the full 20 per cent compensation that the IPL pay the ECB. It should go from IPL to ECB and then on to us.

“Then everyone is looked after. Obviously as counties we have lost a top player but there is a sum of money that can be reinvested and the player is not being hit by one per cent.”