Watch: Michael Atherton Believes Indian T20 League And Other Franchise Tournaments Will Be A Threat To International Cricket

Franchise-based tournaments are a raging thing in cricket at the moment. The immense success of the Indian T20 League has shown how effective this model can be. There are several T20 contests held in various nations, and there are many more that are currently being developed. South Africa and UAE are the latest to launch their franchise-based tournaments.

Former England cricketer Michael Atherton believes that these tournaments will be a threat to international cricket. While speaking to Sky Sports, he said that cricket might be going the football way, where players will represent their franchises in various leagues.

"There will come a time where essentially cricket becomes the football model, and say take Jonny Bairstow. There might come a time where Venky (Mysore) at KKR says, 'Right Jonny you're ours. We are gonna pay you five million a year, and you play IPL from February to May.' You're playing the Hundred, you're playing the Big Bash, and you're playing four or five franchise tournaments a year, and International bords will find that very difficult to challenge against," he said.

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If only Venky had done it Athers.. We manifested it too. pic.twitter.com/8obw8GUZQ8

— 𝗔𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘆𝗮⎊ (@StarkAditya_) July 22, 2022

Earlier, Atherton had said that Cricket might be at its tipping point when Ben Stokes announced his retirement from ODI cricket. He thinks that the emergence of T20 franchise competitions like the Indian T20 League indicates that the sport has reached a tipping point and that bilateral series are in danger.

"I think the game is at a tipping point, which has long been coming probably since the advent of the IPL. You could argue the tipping point has come now with South Africa recently taking the decision to abandon three ODIs In Australia next year as they want their best players available for their franchise tournament."

"They are prepared to slightly imperil their participation in the next World Cup to do that. That tells you all you need to know about where the balance of power is between international and franchise cricket. What will give is bilateral international cricket."