Based on a report that will make "very uncomfortable reading" for officials at the England & Wales Cricket board, county cricket's Twenty20 competition "was rated more popular with the public than the FA Cup last year," according to Nick Hoult of the London TELEGRAPH. The YouGov 2016 Sport Index annual report placed the T20 Blast "seventh in the list of most popular sports" in the U.K. last year, putting it one place ahead of int'l cricket and the FA Cup, "at a time when the ECB is looking to sideline the competition in favour of a city-based tournament featuring eight teams." Opponents of those plans will be "boosted" by the report, which described the Blast as "English cricket's 2016 success story." But the competition will be "eclipsed by a Big Bash-style tournament that the ECB aims to launch" in '20. The Sport Index report measures performance through public awareness and positive or negative publicity, and "claims to interview 100 people per day." The report said, "The positioning of the event as a highly entertaining spectacle -- with music and dancers, low-cost tickets and Friday-night games -- has helped push buzz up by 6.6 per cent in 2016, building on an increase of 1.5 per cent in 2015." The ECB is "in the process of putting the final touches to its plans for the new competition," which will be presented to the 18 county chairs and Marylebone Cricket Club on March 27 (TELEGRAPH, 3/4).
WOMEN'S T20: IANS reported India will "soon have its first T20 league for the eves" -- Women's Cricket League -- to be launched on March 8, coinciding with Int'l Women's Day. The WCL is "viewed as an earnest endeavor to provide women cricketers in India equal opportunities and acknowledgment at par with their male counterparts" (IANS, 3/2).
