A plan to "shake up English cricket and emulate the success of Australia and India in creating an entertaining spectacle" for TV audiences is already "under attack from some of the sport’s traditional powers," according to Malcolm Moore of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The England & Wales Cricket Board is in the middle of a "wide-ranging review." One plan under consideration is a "version of the successful made-for-TV tournaments" in India and Australia, with new franchises "starring some of the sport's best players." The Big Bash in Australia, for example, "attracted average crowds of 22,000" in '14, roughly four times as many fans as watched the NatWest Twenty20 Blast in the U.K. In a sign of how "worried some counties are, lobbying against any radical changes has already begun." Surrey Cricket Club CEO Richard Gould said, "The worst thing for us would be for the ECB to create a franchise-based tournament over a short-term period." He pointed out that tournaments designed for TV over just six to eight weeks could more than "halve his overall ticket sales at Surrey" from its current level of £3.5M ($5.4M). Gould: "Television money that we get from the ECB is only six percent of our revenues." Essex County CEO Derek Bowden said that he was "concerned that teams outside cities may not be given a franchise for the new competition, or be put in a second division." Other counties were "more sanguine about change." Durham County CEO David Harker said, "It is whatever works for the public. But all of us are concerned that if you are going to have a limited number of franchises, let us say 10, then what happens to the other teams?” (FT, 7/3).
