The English cricket took a step towards launching a Twenty20 competition when the counties gave it overwhelming backing, but the new tournament is likely to be delayed until 2020 to maximise television revenue. A meeting at Lord’s between the England & Wales Cricket Board and the 18 counties and MCC concluded with an agreement that could see the end of more than 120 years of tradition.
The eight team tournament, featuring new teams and played in a window at the height of the summer, will be the first professional domestic competition in England to not feature the counties. The ECB proposed five options for the future of Twenty20 but it was the one featuring the new competition with teams based at eight Test match grounds that Colin Graves, the board chairman, and its chief executive Tom Harrison, presented as the only realistic choice.
It is understood Graves asked counties at the meeting if they were in favour of this being the only option to be further explored and just three (Surrey, Sussex and Kent) said no. He received the backing of 16 others giving his authority a huge boost, but will now have to provide further details before the next ECB board meeting on Oct 18.
Harrison’s team will now have to thrash out specifics such as where the new teams will be based, their identities, how they will be formed, how a player draft will work and the size of squads. The ECB has promised cash of around £1.5m per year to each county from the new tournament plus staging fees for the grounds hosting teams. But this will need a television deal to underpin the ECB’s costs. The original plan was for the tournament to be launched in 2018 but with Sky owning rights to English cricket until the end of 2019 it would prevent the ECB selling their new asset on the open market.
Waiting until 2020 is understood to be now favoured within the ECB because it would bring BT Sport into the picture opening up the possibility of a bidding war and also potentially attract a terrestrial broadcaster as well. There is still a long way to go before the new tournament becomes a reality. There will be a backlash from county members concerned if their club will be marginalised. All but three of the counties are still owned by their members and chairmen could face being removed by those members if they fail to convince them the new tournament is the way forward.
The introduction of a new tournament will require a formal vote to change the ECB’s constitution and this is expected later in the year. All 41 members of the ECB, which includes recreational board and the counties, will be balloted with the motion for change requiring a two thirds majority.
The ECB believe this new competition is vital for attracting a new audience to the game and help drive up participation.
