Mike Yardy and Murray Goodwin (Photo: Clare Calder)
Season IV of the Indian Premier League reached a climax on 30th May as the Chennai Super Kings beat the Royal Chargers Bangalore for their second successive IPL title. The IPL brings together the best players in the world, with teams created following an auction where bids of over a million US dollars are placed on the top players for a six week contract. There is something obscene about these sums being paid to sportsmen in a country with such deep-rooted poverty.
But you don’t need to go to India to see some of the world’s best players coming together to play great cricket. The Sussex Sharks are amongst the best Twenty 20 teams in England and, on current form, could challenge the best in the world, and the contract sums are far more modest.
The Sussex club has created a successful blend of proven international players and home-grown talent. So who can you see at Hove this season? The batting lineup includes England’s T20 world cup winners and local boys Luke Wright and Mike Yardy, the big hitting New Zealander Lou Vincent, Zimbabwean Murray Goodwin, and Ireland’s Ed Joyce.
Bowling for Sussex are the South African opening bowler, Wayne Parnell, the ever-youthful Pakistan opener Rana Naved, along with Wright and Yardy and fellow England international Monty Panesar. Supporting them with bat and ball is the Cuckfield-born Chris Nash who is having the season of his life and wicket keeper Andy Hodd, a more than able deputy for Sussex’s Matt Prior who is currently in the Test team playing Sri Lanka.
So, how far would you have travel and how much would you have to pay for a lineup such as this? The answer is the County Ground in Hove, and it will cost no more than £20. And I haven’t yet mentioned those turning out for the opposition.
Having grown up in South Africa under Apartheid and during the sporting isolation of that country (which was important in bringing to an end that evil regime), I saw some great South African cricketers but missed out on the best from around the world. So I still marvel at the talent I see week in, week out at Hove. I am amazed that Brighton and Hove does not do more to celebrate this sporting jewel and why there aren’t full houses at every match.
(A version of this article firast appeared on 21st June 2011 in Latest Homes a magazine published in Brighton, England)
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