WITH the Indian Premier League kicking off last Friday, Worcestershire chief executive Mark Newton is hoping that it will help encourage parents to push their children towards cricket.
In the world of celebrity where all you need to do to be a star for five minutes is sit on a couch for weeks on end, actually doing something for the star status will be almost an alien concept.
But in India, where cricketers are treated like Premiership footballers, the new Premier League of cricket might be appealing to the pushy parents keen to live their dreams through their children.
With talks last week between the England and Wales Cricket Board and billionaire Sir Allen Stanford about a winner-takes-all $20million match involving England and a West Indies all-star XI, cricket is suddenly flush with cash.
Maybe the tradionalists will not agree, but Twenty20 is here to stay and Newton thinks that is a good thing.
He said: "It's an open market place out there and if they want to play a player a $1million plus then it is great for cricket because it means, that the parents of young athletes will start to see cricket and compare it to football in a far more favourable light."
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