ECB planning to launch their own city-based T20 league
Jul 27, 2016 at 7:24 PM
According to reports in the Telegraph, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is contemplating the idea of launching their own Twenty20 league which will be the most radical overhaul in English county cricket’s history.
The tournament could be launched as soon as 2018 and will be played over a duration of four weeks. The launch of the tournament will see England becoming the only country with two domestic T20 competitions as they already have the Natwest T20 Blast. The tournament will be a city based competition and will feature the creation of new teams. However, the counties will be shareholders and would also continue to contest their own tournament.
“A team of officials at the England & Wales Cricket Board has been working for months on the structure of a proposal for a new Twenty20 tournament featuring new teams with new identities, which if agreed by the counties will then be sold to broadcasters with one live match per week set to be shown on terrestrial television,” reported the English daily.
Meanwhile, an ECB spokesperson said that the talks are still going on and that there could be an announcement later this year.
“It’s widely known that we’ve been looking at the future shape of the domestic T20 competition, for the long-term benefit of the whole game,” said the spokesperson.
“ECB has started to discuss a small range of options with the First Class Counties and a wider range of stakeholders.
“At this stage, there is no agreed or preferred approach and we will continue to talk privately and constructively throughout the summer, with a view to helping the game make a well-informed decision later this year.”
The tournament is seen as England’s answer to highly popular Indian Premier League and Big Bash League.