Harbhajan Singh believes international cricket has already lost its battle with franchise leagues. The shift is not coming. It has happened.
In a PTI podcast interview, the former India spinner estimated that 70 per cent of cricket viewers now prefer watching league cricket over international fixtures. He did not frame it as a warning. He stated it as fact.
“It would be difficult to (for international cricket to get) back to its former stature because the leagues have become so big. In the league, the fans get to see a mixture of everything, competing with each other, so that’s a different spectacle.”
Harbhajan Singh, PTI podcast, August 2026
Harbhajan pointed to packed stadiums across every major franchise competition as evidence. The IPL sells out. The Hundred fills grounds in England. The BBL draws crowds in Australia. He described the IPL’s two-month window as a “festival” and a “carnival” that has created its own culture separate from international cricket.
The only international matches that still attract attention, according to Harbhajan, are the marquee ones. India against Australia. India against England. India against South Africa. Beyond those, he sees no real viewership pull.
He was bluntest about ODI cricket.
“I would pay to watch Test cricket. I have no interest in ODIs. I have seen it, played it.”
Harbhajan Singh, PTI podcast, August 2026
That line comes from a bowler who took 269 ODI wickets across 236 matches. For the format’s own veterans to abandon it tells you where ODI cricket stands in the hierarchy today.
Harbhajan called Test cricket “main cricket” and urged all stakeholders to protect it. But even while defending Tests, he acknowledged that the format has slipped to the “backseat” despite deserving the top spot.
His interview landed one day after ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta made a strikingly similar admission. Speaking to PTI on August 12, Gupta said the era of randomly scheduled bilateral series must end because countries cannot sustain cricket without context, culture, competition, and competitiveness. The ICC’s own chief executive was conceding, in different language, the same point Harbhajan made: international cricket in its current form does not hold enough meaning to compete with what franchise leagues offer.
The evidence is not theoretical. In New Zealand, Kane Williamson declined central contracts in consecutive years to maintain flexibility for T20 leagues before retiring from international cricket entirely in 2026. Devon Conway spent two years on casual playing agreements with NZC, choosing selective availability over full commitment, before returning to the central contract list for 2026-27.
West Indies face the problem at an even sharper level. When CWI announced their squad for the T20I series against Afghanistan in January 2026, four key players, Shai Hope, Roston Chase, Akeal Hosein, and Sherfane Rutherford, were unavailable because of SA20 commitments. A franchise league in South Africa took priority over national duty in the Caribbean.
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Harbhajan’s entire legacy was built by international cricket. The hat-trick against Australia in 2001. The 32 wickets in that Border-Gavaskar series. Two World Cup winners’ medals. Every defining moment of his career happened in an India jersey, not a franchise one. When someone whose name exists because of international cricket says the format has permanently lost, that is not commentary. That is a verdict.
The damage goes beyond scheduling and economics. Franchise cricket rewards power hitting over patience. Every batter grows up chasing sixes because that is where the money, the attention, and the highlights sit. ODI and Test cricket demand technique, endurance, the ability to survive and build. That craft is being eroded. The shorter format has reshaped how batters think, how they train, what they value. It is harsh, but it is the reality. International cricket is not just losing fans. It is losing the skills that made it worth watching.
Harbhajan also revealed that his autobiography, which has been in the works for some time, will release later this year. From the player who saw both eras from the inside, that book will carry a perspective few others can offer.
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