A domestic Twenty20 tournament featuring eight new city-based teams has moved a step closer following a positive vote at Lord’s on Tuesday to further explore the proposal.
Representatives of the England & Wales Cricket Board, the counties, the MCC and the Professional Cricketers’ Association discussed five options for change to domestic T20 and decided to discuss further a tournament that would follow a similar model to Australia’s Big Bash and the Indian Premier League, both of which have proven hugely successful.
The tournament would run in conjunction with the NatWest T20 Blast, which will continue to be contested by the existing 18 counties, and would be run centrally by the ECB. It is believed each team would be restricted to three overseas players, with a draft system used to select squads of between 14 and 16 players.
“We’ve all been looking at how we can use domestic T20 for an even bigger purpose, especially getting more young people to play,” the ECB chairman, Colin Graves, said in a statement. “This format was invented here and is successful worldwide. It can excite new fans, attract the best players and fuel the future of the game, on and off the pitch.
“The need to grow interest and participation in the game we love is at the core of our thinking and this is a rigorous process. We’ve talked to each county individually about the need for change, a range of potential options and the implications.”
He added: “There’s a constructive dialogue with county chairmen and chief executives, the MCC and PCA and now agreement to move forward and further develop this approach. The next steps for us all, as a game, will be to extend the discussions and get valuable input from players, members and other key voices across the game.”
The new format, which is part of the “Cricket Unleashed” strategy, will be considered formally by the ECB board in October.
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