ECB Finally Planning To Rival IPL And Big Bash

It's easy to forget England actually invented T20 cricket. So often over the years the country have looked so far behind many others in the shortest form of the game. Even their victory in the 2010 World Cup was more by accident than design but the ECB might finally be turning a much needed corner.

T20 started in England and the early incarnations of the annual county tournament were exciting and fun and brought extra entertainment and fans to county grounds. However with the invention of the Indian Premier League, Big Bash and Caribbean Premier League the ECB's T20 Blast model has often looked stale.

There's often been talk of England following suit with a franchise and auction based system but it's never happened. Most believed that it would now be 2020 at the earliest because of the ECB's tv deal with Sky. However it could happen as early as 2018.

The cricket board have been in talks about a structure for the new competition including a tv deal that would see one match a week shown on terrestrial television. The competition would see new teams with new identities and has to be agreed by the counties.

The incentive for the counties would be that the money generated is ringfenced for them and not for use by the ECB for the national team or anything else. Players would be auctioned to teams and their salaries paid for by the tv deal.

All the specific details, like number of teams, have yet to be decided with talks between the ECB, Professional Cricketers' Association and counties set to take place. To get the new tournament ratified it would need to be agreed by 12 of the 18 counties and 26 of the 39 recreational cricket boards that make up membership of the ECB.

In a typically strange twist the counties are keen to retain the T20 Blast competition that currently runs, predominantly on Friday nights, and has produced good income for them so the country could see two separate T20 tournaments running side by side.

The England and Wales Board have reportedly seen the need to hurry up with their plans, rather than wait for 2020, with the CPL, which clashes with the English summer, looking to grow and the IPL looking at a second season in the year in September.

(Via Telegraph)

Topics: Cricket, England, T20

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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