'Approach agreed' for new eight-team, city-based domestic T20 competition
Wednesday 14 September 2016 17:16, UK
Cricket's professional game has "agreed an approach" for a new eight-team, city-based T20 competition, to be staged in addition to the NatWest T20 Blast.
The broad agreement was reached at a meeting of the chairmen and chief executives of the 18 first-class counties, MCC and the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) at Lord's in the latest stage of ongoing discussions about the future structure of domestic cricket and how to drive interest and participation at all levels.
The first-class counties will carry out wider consultation on the proposal, while the PCA will address its full membership, all with the support of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) before discussion by the ECB board, which will formally consider the proposal next month.
Sky Sports News HQ reporter David Fulton said: "Five options were on the table and they have gone for Option 4 which means that [there was] a broad agreement - and we understand that with the MCC and the 18 counties there was a 16-3 [vote] in favour of this proposal - agreeing to city-based cricket - eight new teams.
"The T20 Blast will still run alongside it, but this will be in a block, it will be city-based teams.
"It has also been widely reported - but it's unconfirmed at the moment - that each county will receive £1.5m and there will be a £300,000 staging agreement for the grounds which house those city teams.
"It's an ongoing process, there are further stages to go through but this is big news in T20. I guess you look at the Big Bash and the IPL and there has been this move for a number of years now to try and get more city-based cricket, and it looks like this is the first step towards that."
Former England captain Nasser Hussain hopes the new tournament will repeat the success of the Big Bash League in Australia and the IPL in India.
He told Sky Sports News HQ: "I don't want to write off the history of 18 first-class clubs but you can't please all the people all the time. If you were starting again now - we started the Twenty20 13 or 14 years ago [but] other ones have gone past us - would you do it with the present system? Probably not.
"Just because it is good doesn't mean you can't improve it. If you just carry on doing things the same way because it is good, you will always get what you have always had.
"So we should always look to improve our cricket and not just do it because history says Essex have produced some decent cricketers over the years and the members won't be happy here."
The agreed approach is built on the game-wide strategy - Cricket Unleashed - and has been developed to broaden cricket's appeal, provide greater financial stability for all 18 first-class counties and ensure that each continues to compete in all three formats of the game.
ECB chairman Colin Graves: "We've all been looking at how we can use domestic T20 for an even bigger purpose, especially getting more young people to play.
"This format was invented here and is successful worldwide. It can excite new fans, attract the best players and fuel the future of the game, on and off the pitch.
"The need to grow interest and participation in the game we love is at the core of our thinking and this is a rigorous process.
"We've talked to each county individually about the need for change, a range of potential options and the implications.
"There's a constructive dialogue with county chairmen and chief executives, the MCC and PCA and now agreement to move forward and further develop this approach.
"The next steps for us all, as a game, will be to extend the discussions and get valuable input from players, members and other key voices across the game."
