County cricket execs have been offered "at least" £1.3M ($1.6M) a year "to pave the way for a new English Twenty20 competition," according to Matt Majendie of the London EVENING STANDARD. The England & Wales Cricket Board is "confident the financial carrot will be sufficient for the counties to vote in a change to the governing body’s constitution" to enable eight new regional teams, rather than counties, to line up for the competition, starting in '20. Counties were given the proposals in full and "encouraged to vote for change with the additional cash bonus on offer." The proposals said, "Each first-class county which has signed the media deed would receive a guaranteed minimum annual sum of £1.3million" (EVENING STANDARD, 3/27). The BBC reported ECB CEO Tom Harrison said that the new tournament "can rival the Indian Premier League" and is "not a gamble" for the counties. Harrison: "What we are doing here is future-proofing county cricket. I don't think it's so much a gamble, I think it's about looking into the future and saying, 'What do we want our business and our game to look like?'" (BBC, 3/27). Key elements of the proposed new T20 competition include:
- Eight new teams playing 36 games over a 38-day summer window, with four home games per team.
- All games televised with significant free-to-air exposure.
- No scheduling overlap with the T20 Blast.
- IPL-style playoff system to give more incentive for finishing higher up the league table.
- A players' draft.
- Squads of 15, with three being overseas players.
- Venue selection to be based on potential venues' ability to deliver the strategic objectives of the new competition.
- Event presentation to be centrally directed and differentiated from other formats of cricket (ECB).
RADICAL PLANS: In London, Paul Newman reported Harrison launched a "passionate" defense of the new T20 competition. Central to pressing ahead with the "radical plans," Harrison, along with ECB Chair Colin Graves, "staked his reputation on convincing counties steeped in 130 years of tradition that the game desperately needs eight new 'city' based teams." Harrison said, "We have to think differently if we are going to be successful in attracting family audiences to our competitions." Tuesday's full ECB board meeting will be asked to "rubber-stamp" the rewriting of English cricket's constitution so that "all 18 counties do not have to feature in a competition that is meant to bring a completely new following to the game" (
DAILY MAIL, 3/27).
