the business of cricket

South African Cricketers’ Association CEO Andrew Breetzke weighs in on BPL Scandal | cricexec podcast ep 11

Must Read

In today’s episode of Business of Cricket Podcast, we sit down with Andrew Breetzke, CEO of the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) and Board Member of the World Cricketers’ Association, to discuss a major controversy in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) regarding late or missing player payments. Andrew highlights the broader risks threatening franchise leagues worldwide—corruption and financial instability—and explains how due diligence, player associations, and governance can help address these issues.

The conversation delves into the rapid rise of franchise leagues, the financial sustainability of the cricket economy, and the ICC’s role (or lack thereof) in regulating the global cricket calendar. With insights on the SA20’s success and the challenges facing smaller cricket boards, this is a must-watch discussion for anyone interested in the future of the game.

Transcript

Zee: And we’re here with Andrew Breetzke, who’s the CEO of SACA, the South African Cricketers Association. Andrew, thank you so much for joining us.

Andrew Breetzke: No, pleasure, good to be on the show.

Zee: So Andrew, obviously there’s a brewing, breaking, high profile story specifically about the Bangladesh Premier League and players not being paid or being paid late. And it seems like a systematic problem. And we’re trying to get a sense of that and what’s going on in the industry. Now, obviously one of the most shocking statements to come out of that whole set of press stories was one of the owners, believe the Chittagong owner saying, you know, there was one player, a local player said, I, you know, I didn’t pay him. I didn’t feel like paying them. I wasn’t happy and money doesn’t grow on trees. What’s your reaction to that sort of statement and sentiment by an owner?

Andrew Breetzke: Well, it’s obviously shocking, but it goes to the heart of the number of the challenges we’re facing with the proliferation of these T20 and T10 events around the world. I think it’s important to just stop and focus on an important point. There are two issues that ultimately will undermine, even destroy any domestic league around the world. The first is corruption.

If corruption is an issue in your league, it will destroy the integrity of your league and ultimately it will fail because the players will stay away. So you have to have a league that’s good anti-corruption, good anti-corruption education, etc. So we always say corruption can just destroy a league around the world and there are leagues that have had those problems. The second big one of course is this issue, is the non-payment of players.

And as the leagues have proliferated and the new owners coming and going and players who can also be to blame actually sign up contracts without doing a bit of due diligence around the terms of the contracts, we’ve picked up these problems around the world. And what’s happened in Bangladesh is a good example of it. So if those two elements of corruption and the non-payment are not sorted, then your league ultimately will fail. 

And the one thing we always say to our players is: In any league you go to, you need to make sure that there’s some upfront payment, that there’s some understanding. Before you get on the airplane, you need to be sure of the financial elements. And sadly now it appears Bangladesh is a league which has got a number of problems. And let me also just say it doesn’t help that a board comes afterwards and says, we’ll step in, we’ll make sure it’s fine, or we’ll pay the players. The damage is done. The reputational damage is done because the players have already suffered. 

And I think you’ll have to go far and wide to find a player who plays the leagues who hasn’t experienced that somewhere in the world. So it’s a major challenge for player associations, for world cricketers, where we try and advise players how to be cautious and give them information as to leagues where there are payment problems.

Zee: So, you know, let’s dig a little deeper in the Bangladesh situation before I ask more general questions about the overall situation. So in Bangladesh, you know, what was interesting, although that’s not the word, guess what was shocking is the word I continue to use. What was shocking is, you know, this isn’t some breakaway T10 league that just emerged out of the mushrooming of, you know, too many leagues, right? This is the BPL, which is the main T20 league in a test nation and their cricketing board is extremely involved with, in fact, runs. There’s stories coming out, we published one today about how there’s not much revenue sharing with the teams. so the BPL has a pretty big hand, a big involvement, not only involvement, but ownership by the BCB.

In a situation like this, what’s your take? Because it’s not just, hey, another league sprung up. This is their national T20 league with, you know, it’s their IPL, right? It’s their SA20, right? It’s their PSL. It’s the national board’s domestically, mean, globally.

Andrew Breetzke: Yeah, I think that’s a massive question. Like, have we got two hours to unpack it? Because I think it goes to the structure of the game. So we have a situation where we all know where the money is in world cricket, with India, et cetera, et cetera. 

And so we have boards who’ve probably gone, and maybe desperate is the wrong word, but I’ll use it, desperately to try and create their own franchise T20 event so that they can obtain another stream of revenue outside ICC revenues, etc. And how you achieve that is you need to approve and sanction cricket, whether it’s Cricket South Africa sanctioning the SA20 or ECB sanctioning the 100, etc. And that’s sort of a requirement. Once that’s in place, you can start your league and then it’s to get independent ownership and everybody wants to own a team. And if the due diligence is done around those teams, is not done correctly and I’m making an assumption but if you if you enter in a situation where there’s a payment problem one has to assume some of the due diligence wasn’t done properly that desperation and that haste to get on the domestic t20 bandwagon around the world I think you’re going to pick up problems and so even a board like the Bangladesh board who are full member, etc, etc, seem to have got to a point where in the desperation to get the league and issue due diligence on the owners what it should be, because I’d have to say it’s not if you’re getting statements like you got in the media. 

So I think that’s the problem. It’s the haste and the need for countries to develop these T20 leagues, which leads to getting new money in but maybe your control over that isn’t what it should be. And I think there are a couple of leagues, the Canadian league is one that springs to mind, where there’d be non-payment issues and it’s the same type of situation.

Zee: Yeah, what I’ll say about the GT20, which you’re referring to, is that it has no connection to Cricket Canada, right? That’s a totally independent league, owned or run by the National Board, as opposed to this one.

Andrew Breetzke: Which is a greater risk and one’s seeing more and more of that. Especially in the veterans space where these leagues are being created and that’s even more difficult to sort of control and do due diligence on that.

Zee: So, I mean, let’s talk about the players for a second, right? Like you said, it’s on the players as well to be on it. Cricexec covers the entire cricket industry worldwide, right? I happen to be based in the US, so I know a lot of the domestic players, I’m friendly with them, and I see what they go through, right? Which is when you’re a player, right? And other than a handful, the top, let’s call it 100, 200 men, right? None of these players are rich, right?

They’re looking for a way to earn money. They’re looking to keep their profiles up. A separate conversation about cricket to me these days feels more like golf than a team sport, because you’re an individual player going from tournament to tournament to tournament, right? And you just need to keep your profile up. So it’s hard to blame them, right, for wanting to go play somewhere that’s high profile, right? So should the onus really be on them to screen for accountability and corruption and whatnot, or should they be able to rely on, you know, it’s ICC sanctioned, I should be able to go play without an issue.

Andrew Breetzke: You see, I don’t believe you can rely on ICC sanction because the way that sort of sanction filters down and approved cricket, it’s quite evident that that isn’t working. So, interestingly, from a player association point of view and from a world cricketers point of view, that’s actually become quite a significant job role of ours. So if you go on the world cricketers website, there’s actually a league hub there where we’ve got all the leagues in the world and there’s information packed for every player on every single league to say, this is what you need to know about this country etc etc. 

And yes, there have been payment problems. So it’s almost a warning light. So we go to players and say, you need to actually do your homework. But of course, it’s often driven by agents. So it’s not just a player. It’s an agent who says, I’ve got a deal. But you know, it’s interesting we’re having this discussion now because I think we’re moving to a situation in the world of domestic leagues, T20 leagues, where actually it’s going to split and there’s going to be almost an A league of leagues and a B league of leagues. And the A league will obviously have the IPL in and at the moment we’ll probably have the SA20, the Big Bash, The Hundred, maybe one or two others. Then there’ll be B leagues. And the way players move to these leagues, I think, is going to be interesting in terms of how they contract. And one of the elements of that A-B split is going to be those compliance issues, the anti-corruption, the payment on time. So leagues are going to have to work incredibly hard to make sure they squeaky clean on all those issues, to make sure they stay at the top and are able to attract the top players. Because I think players are becoming a bit more discerning in where they go and what they do. And this Bangladesh issue is actually just going to heighten that.

Another element that I’ll throw in the mix is the amount of money going around these leagues for players. I’m not sure it’s sustainable at the current level. And I think there’s a general feeling that over the next few years, those levels will drop off just because sometimes it seems too good to be true. And maybe it is, and maybe this is evidence that it is.

Zee: Yeah, again, a lot to unpack that we, you and I could spend all day talking about this, right? What’s interesting to me is that I thought the following, the falling off would have happened a long time ago, right? There, there seemed to be, it seems to be the opposite happening, which is more leagues springing up, right? And I don’t know if, and we’ll, know, we, we try to investigate things. I don’t know if it’s because at the end of it, there’s some rich individual who’s willing to bankroll the loss.

I don’t know if there’s something else going on, but yeah, the question would be how long will it take for the landscape to shake out in the way you’re talking about because there don’t seem to be any signs of it right now.

Andrew Breetzke: Yeah, I actually think there are signs of it, just in terms of my experience with players who basically say, I don’t need to go to all these leagues. I’m actually comfortable with what I’m doing. I think you’re also going to see more leagues coming up against leagues. There’s only so much space in the calendar. And if that’s a January window, for example, where you’ve got the SA20 and the Dubai League or whatever.

Leagues are going to have to survive against each other. And I do think that’s almost going to pull it into A, B. I think a Pakistan league being played at the same time as the IPL, which has been muted, there’ll obviously be politics around that. But that’s probably what the future of the game looks like. And again, there’s a natural division between A and B. So I think there is a bit more of a discernment happening around players. But where you are correct is it does seem to be very easy to start a league and someone puts money.

But you will have noticed that the more recent trend is that there are a number of over 40 leagues happening. And sort of the older generation, the past players. I think that’s indicative of, maybe we’ve exhausted the current player pool, it’s going to the next player pool. So that’s a bit of a canary in the mine for me, we’ve moved on to that type of league.

Zee: Yeah, I mean, that’s a whole separate conversation itself. My take on that is it’s about brand power, right? Because you’ve got all these leagues where you have names that aren’t as known, much incredibly talented, but at least in the Legends League, you can pull together all these former players who are massive stars and just leverage their brand names and it seems to be doing well, right? 

Andrew Breetzke: Yeah, and not pay as much. That’s the other element. So you can get players not pay as much because you’re not necessarily competing with other leagues as well. So, I mean, it’s very interesting, but where the market’s going, I just don’t think the finances can sustain this investment into the player amount. I mean, the great irony of cricket today is we could have a discussion on the structure of the game and the challenges facing the structure of the game and the power of India, et cetera et cetera could spend hours on that.

Zee: Yeah.

Andrew Breetzke: And the problem that smaller countries like South Africa are having in funding the game is financially it’s becoming really difficult to sustain the game here and everywhere else etc etc but at the same time we’ll say there’s more opportunity now for players to earn significant sums of money than there has ever been in the history of the game so there’s this interesting contradiction going on in the world of cricket so somewhere I think there’s got to be a bit of an equilibrium because you still need the domestic games in all the countries to be producing top players to the international level for a league to actually be viable somewhere else and we haven’t quite got that balance right and I think that’s got a lot to do with leadership we actually need the ICC to take leadership in creating that balance but that’s also another podcast probably.

Zee: Well, yeah, well, you know that, you know, and I’ve taken a lot of your time. I wanted to, um, again, each of these questions is an hour long conversation, right? Because look, the importance of these domestic international leagues, right? We have mostly domestic players with the governing board involved and a handful of international stars. Like that is massive, right? So when I was covering the world cup last summer here, like Aidan was saying, the SA-20 is just massive. You know, South Africa got to the final and so he was like, I’ve seen the impact the SA-20 has had on our team, on our ability to produce talent. And these, you know, we’ve got a deep squad that’s, even if they haven’t played in these other national leagues, they’ve played in our league with these players, right? And learned a lot. So I think that imperative is that impetus is not gonna go away, at least for the main leagues in each task playing nation or major associate. We see the same thing in the MLC here in the US, right?

Andrew Breetzke: Yeah.

Zee: But my last question, which you already touched on, is about the role of the ICC, right? At the end of the day, it is the global governing board, right? Whatever the power and the political and the financial limitations are on the ICC, what role do you want to see the ICC playing here and what role can they play here, right? What are their concerns? What’s preventing them from doing that?

To prevent these kind of outcomes that no one is, it wants to see and the kind of questions of like, you you see an owner, I go back to that quote saying that, and that’s the league that’s basically owned by the BCB, which is, you know, a full test nation and should be in some way accountable to the rest of the global quickening community and the mechanism or the forum you would imagine would somehow go through the ICC. So what about their role and what they should be doing?

Andrew Breetzke: Yeah.

Forgive me, I’m going to say something else before I answer that question, which I think is relevant. Referencing the SA20, it is very successful. It has attracted the top players, doing well. But what they have done well in the SA20 is when that idea was in its infancy, Graeme Smith sat down with us as a player association and said, how do we make this the best league in the world after the IPL?

And we agreed to play a contract with him. We agreed how payments would take place. We were included in that because he knew that for his league to be so successful, he needed to make sure he ticked every box and had the players on board. So there are lessons, I think, that the SA20 did, things they did which are good lessons for other leagues.

You know, the other night I was watching KG, Robada bowling to Joe Root in the opening game. That’s good for fans and we’ve introduced new fans to the game. So there’s a lot of success there. Even though I’m a test connoisseur, I appreciate new fans coming in and seeing that. The ICC point, you said the ICC is the governing body of cricket. It’s not the governing body of cricket. It’s the members association. And I think that’s sort of the mindset we get into. It’s a governing body and it’s not.

I always look at FIFA and World Rugby and the ICC and you would think they’re the same but there’s one massive difference. FIFA and World Rugby control the calendar so it doesn’t matter how powerful the football teams in the world are or the rugby teams the spring bucks are. If you control the calendar, you control the sport. You govern the sport. so, Real Madrid and Man United can be as powerful as they want, but when there’s an international window, their players have to go.

That is not non-existent in cricket. The ICC do not control the calendar, so they are not in control of cricket. And that not in control of cricket means that, well, where does the control lie? Well, the control lies at the most powerful country, which is India, So until the ICC are willing to actually say, well, let’s take control of the calendar.

For example create windows where leagues are played and if it means there’s a league up against the league so be it and there’s space for bilateral international cricket to be played then it’s otherwise it’s a free for all in the market and that’s what we have at the moment and with where FIFA and world rugby can say no this is the gap where you must play x y and Zee we don’t have that and so ultimately if you don’t have control like that what governs the destiny, well, the economics governs the destiny. And whether that’s the IPL that stretches for eight weeks or 10 weeks or 12 weeks, it’s the economics. So sadly, I think that’s our challenge. We would need the ICC to take a grip and take hold of effectively the calendar. So just, sorry, I know I’m carrying on a bit now, South Africa made the Test Championship final. There were some countries that said, oh, it’s not fair, they didn’t play everybody. They didn’t play England and Australia, et cetera, et cetera.

I’m very proud we made the final and we played all the teams that were put in front of us and we beat them.

But having said that, if between three big powerhouses, you want to play each other so many times and basically dictate the calendar, then logic tells you that there’s a good chance that one or two of you might not make the test finally if it doesn’t go your way because you’re playing each other all the time. So you effectively cancel each other out. So you become your own worst enemy because you want the schedule you want. So it would be great if we had strong leadership at the ICC that said, well, let’s actually govern and start by looking at the calendar because that’s what other sports

Zee: Yeah, fascinating. I want to thank you and apologize at the same time. I told you I was going to take you a few, take up a few minutes of your time, right? Turn it into a full podcast episode. But thank you for your thoughts and your eloquence. I think, you know, this is a conversation and these are topics that the cricket world has to continue to confront and wrestle with because

Andrew Breetzke: never

Zee: That’s the only, and ideally, hopefully someday do something about, because that’s the only way we get from A to B, right? Because there are things about the cricket world’s state affairs right now that are fantastic, and there are things that are horrible. And we just gotta keep one and get rid of the other as much as possible.

Andrew Breetzke: Yeah, Good to chat.

Zee: Thanks, Andrew.

Name of Author: Zee Zaidi

become a cricexec insider!

Join for free and get:

  • Get the free cricexec “daily briefing” newsletter:
    A 5x-week convenient summary of top industry news
    Also get invitations to exclusive events
  • Exclusive industry reports
  • Invitations to industry events
  • Early access to industry job postings
  • Many other benefits!

Latest News

Former Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer joins Canada Super60 as assistant tournament director – cricket development & operations

Photo Credit: Canada Super60 Toronto, Canada – Feb 14, 2025 – The Canada Super60 League is proud to announce the appointment...

More Articles Like This

Cricexec Newsletter