Former New Zealand batsman David White, who served as CEO of New Zealand Cricket for more than a decade, is currently the CEO of ILT20. Earlier this year, ILT20 became the first associate association-run T20 league to be granted List A status by the ICC. The third season of the DP World International League T20 is scheduled to take place from 11 January to 9 February 2025. The month-long tournament will see 34 matches played across three UAE cricket venues — Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi.
White spoke about a range of topics in an exclusive interview with TOI during his visit to Mumbai.
ILT20 ran for two seasons, what new and exciting things are you planning for fans in terms of player power and star power in season three?
Firstly, if we go from season one to season two, I joined on September 1st of last year. So I joined quite late, but the immediate focus was to grow attendance, because I think in season one, attendance was low. So, I’m pleased to say that attendance has increased by 300%, with 200,000 people attending last year, including 25,000 for the final. That was a positive. But for season three, a big focus has been working more closely with our commercial partners. In particular, we’ve been in discussions with the broadcaster (Zee Entertainment) for about a month already to work together on better planning and collaboration. We expect to finish with franchise teams and be able to grow the league. So, I think a big focus for us is to have a more collaborative approach to growth. So, we’re doing that now. I’ll give you more details on this in a moment, but I’m just trying to give you a high level overview. And from a cricketing perspective, you’ve seen player retention through that. And then on September 15th we’ll announce the new contracts. And we’re happy to say that we’ve made a lot of good signings. Most of those big name players have international T20 experience and IPL experience. So, we’ll be announcing that on September 15th. I think we’re in a pretty good situation.
Will we get to see a player like Shikhar Dhawan, who has just announced his retirement, play in the upcoming IPLT20 season?
Yes. I think there have been some enquiries in that direction. But that’s happened in the last 24 hours. So, there’s nothing to report on that, but there is certainly interest. But I don’t know if he will continue to play cricket at that level. I made an enquiry as soon as I heard the news, but there is no further information as of now. We are just trying to find out if he has retired from cricket completely. Of course, I won’t hide the interest.
One of the big issues with this league is that it competes with CSA 20. Have you tried to resolve it with Cricket South Africa (CSA)?
This year there were limitations. The timing was very restricted by the ICC Champions Trophy as the Champions Trophy starts 10 days after the end of ILT20. The reason for delaying it by a week was because of the Champions Trophy, mainly for the possibility (not certainty) but also because if all the Champions Trophy matches are not played in Pakistan, the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) or UAE may be used as a back-up for the Champions Trophy. So no decision has been taken. But it is an alternative in case all the matches are not played in Pakistan.
So in the future, ideally, to have an independent window for ourselves, and that’s something we’re looking at in the future. And it could be a little further out, into February-March. It’s possible. And if that happens, DP World ILT20 will finish before the start of the IPL, but it could also be a window with very little overlap.
BCCI has a policy that only retired players can play in overseas leagues. Are there any Indian players interested in joining your league?
I think we need to be very clear that this is a high profile international style tournament. Shikhar Dhawan is not, but he is still international level. We don’t want to make this a legends tournament. This is not a legends tournament. This is a high level international team, with nine international players, all of whom are current IPL or international class, most of whom are promising young players. So this is not a retirement tournament at all. This is a high level tournament. In fact, after the first two seasons of our league were good, several players who played with us later went on to the IPL. There are two very interesting examples. Jake Fraser McGurk (Australia opener) who played last year went on to the IPL, and more recently Jamie Smith (England wicketkeeper and batsman).
He just recently got a Test match hundred against Sri Lanka. He played last year (ILT20) as well. So we want current international players, IPL players, but it’s also an opportunity for up-and-coming players to make a name for themselves. So this is a great opportunity. Some of the young players from the UAE have really stepped up and played well. This is a great opportunity for established up-and-coming players. I really want to emphasize that this is a quality tournament with current international and IPL players.
There are a lot of IPL franchises involved as team owners in ILT20. Being from New Zealand, it must be a different experience for you?
No, I have been the CEO of New Zealand Cricket for 12 years. I have dealt with the BCCI and a lot of Indians. I am used to dealing with Indian companies and it is a lot of fun. We are very fortunate to have three very well-known IPL teams as owners, plus the Glazer family (Desert Vipers), who are one of the team owners.
Are you looking to expand the number of ILT20 teams?
Right now, our goal is to consolidate and ensure that our franchise teams are sustainable, financially established and able to develop their own fan bases, which I think is very important over the next few years. So this is short-term and the logic would be that in the long term, it could naturally expand, but it’s not short-term.
Do you expect attendance numbers to increase next season?
What we’ve been talking about and planning for next year is that 34 games in 30 days is quite a lot, especially in the limited areas of Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. But we want to focus on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, when we have big crowds. But it’s also really important that the league games look good on TV. We definitely don’t want the stadium to look empty. So we decided in Dubai to have a big crowd for the opening game. It’s a big opening, and then we’ll fill the top floor with pictures of the players and stuff. And we’ll always have the bottom floor reserved because it’s a big stadium, about 25,000 people. It always looks good on TV. That’s really important.
Does this league help develop players for the UAE national team?
The cricket association has 60,000 registered players. These are official players, not casual players who play cricket in the streets. There are so many people who play cricket in labour camps and so on, and we have a really interesting and diverse group of people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Australia, South Africa, England, and so on. This is very important and we are using ILT20 to promote cricket in the UAE as well. It’s a key part of our high performance programme. The UAE cricket team played in the Asia Cup T20 last year for the first time in several years and I think that was because of ILT20, a lot of UAE players really performed. So ILT20 plays a key role in UAE high performance because we are unique. We are not a full member country like Australia, South Africa or England, we have a big league. (Developing local players) is very important for us.
How has your experience been so far since joining the company last year?
It was a fun, interesting and rewarding experience. But globally, I think the potential for the UAE is immense. Looking at the direction of world cricket going forward, you know we get to have the ICC annual event, which is very important. Why is that important? Because it helps fund the member board. I think that’s very important for the future and the funding of the game. And then, of course, there’s the IPL. I think there will be another three to five big leagues established under that. I think these will be established based on the economy and an economically stable environment. The great thing about the UAE is that we have a big, strong economic environment. There’s a lot of wealth in the UAE. We also have a great time zone. We’re close to India, which is a cricket powerhouse, and we’re also very fortunate to have a long-term TV broadcast deal with Zee. That deal gives us real stability. We can have conferences with DP World, so that gives us stability and it gives us a great platform to move forward. Plus, we can have nine international players, so it creates an international atmosphere.
The main criticism of these leagues is that they are damaging international cricket and that players want to play in franchise-based T20 leagues rather than for their countries…
Well, it’s a balance, right? You know, the international game is going to be a balance. But it’s never been so good for a cricketer. There’s never been a time when, if you’re a player, you can play international cricket, you can play T20 leagues. It’s great for players.
New Zealand Cricket has also implemented contracts to allow players to take part in the T20 league. The New Zealand Cricket Board (NZC) came up with these contracts, known as casual contracts, and personalities like Devon Conway have signed them.
I think in the next two to three years we will see a lot of changes as the game evolves, but as I said before, I think the annual ICC event will be a very important event for the global game because the money will go towards funding the board.
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