The Indian business giants Essel have given a glimpse into their plans for a breakaway form of cricket by revealing moves are afoot to create a city-based Twenty20 franchise tournament within the next two years.
The Guardian revealed two weeks ago that Essel, owned by the billionaire media tycoon Subhash Chandra, and their subsidiary Ten Sports had begun registering companies and website domains with similar names to cricket boards, prompting an urgent investigation by the International Cricket Council.
Essel’s previous foray into the sport came in 2007 with their Indian Cricket League, a “rebel” competition that predated the Board of Cricket Control for India’s hugely successful and officially sanctioned Indian Premier League, which is currently in its eight season.
The ICL began with six teams and was initially played at one ground before three more were added in the second season. It collapsed after two years after its failure to be recognised by the BCCI and the ICC, with as many as 60 players and support staff left unpaid to the tune of £1.3m.
While Chandra, whose company owns broadcast giants Zee TV, is understood to be considering the creation of a global governing body to rival the ICC, Essel’s head of finance and strategy, Himanshu Mody, claims the company will first start out with another stab at the shortest form of the game.
“The format for what we are building will be the T20 format, home and away games, across 10-12 cities,” Mody told the Times of India. “We are not looking at a short time frame. It could be a year away or even a little more. We know the timing is right but we are equally aware of the pitfalls where BCCI can hit us and are much wiser today.
“Besides the right time … the two main ingredients are players and grounds. We had four grounds in India during ICL and players,” Mody added. “We got players even from Pakistan, so I do not see both as a problem at all.
“On the grounds front, during ICL, we fell short with just four grounds in four cities. Also, we learned we needed eight to 10 teams. So, this time round, we will have to ensure we have more grounds.”
