Detailed plans for the England & Wales Cricket Board's new Twenty20 competition have been revealed after a "briefing memo" was sent to county execs, according to Elizabeth Ammon of the LONDON TIMES. The "revolutionary tournament," set to start in '20, aims to create an English league that will "rival the Indian Premier League and Australia’s Big Bash League," but has caused "controversy among the counties." The eight-page document confirmed that:
- Eight teams will have 15-man squads that include three overseas players, with 13 of those players picked during a draft that the ECB "hopes will be televised." The two other players in each squad will be picked as "wild cards" after the T20 Blast has been played.
- All county cricketers, plus overseas players who enter themselves, "will be put into the draft unless they request not to be." They will be placed into different "salary bands."
- The tournament will run from mid-July, after the conclusion of the T20 Blast and alongside a 50-over competition.
Despite the outline of the competition, there is "no mention of where the eight teams might be based," an issue that is "likely to cause ructions" as some counties will miss out on hosting matches. Hosting decisions will not be taken until at least the end of March. A number of county execs "expressed concern over the original proposal that the eight teams would be solely owned by the ECB." In an effort to "alleviate some of those worries," the latest proposal about the governance of the competition is that the eight sides would be "separate legal entities, but each will be controlled by two to three first-class counties." Each of the eight teams will be "allocated the same fixed budget for players, a separate budget to cover coaching costs and a salary cap similar to the one in place in the BBL" (
LONDON TIMES, 2/8).
