Eoin Morgan gives his backing to planned city-based T20 event
Friday 31 March 2017 11:38, UK
Eoin Morgan expects a city-based T20 tournament in England to be a huge success and create just as much local interest as the Indian Premier League and Australia's Big Bash.
Plans are gathering pace to stage a similar franchise-based event in England, with the ECB announcing their intentions earlier this week.
And England's ODI skipper is giving his backing to the scheme which has been earmarked to begin in 2020.
Morgan said: "I've played six years of the IPL and three years of the Big Bash.
International T20 Cricket
"The impact Australia's Big Bash has had on the public, growing the game, it's been phenomenal.
"The age groups and young families the Big Bash engages with are through the roof, it's something like a 70 per cent increase in participation from families and young kids since two years ago. It's ridiculous numbers.
"This probably should have happened here a while ago. We're always going to have the same cricket fans unless we do something differently.
"People are falling out of love with the game, because we're not engaging enough with the public."
Morgan rejects the notion that such a competition would adversely affect the game in England: "I don't think it will damage county cricket at all, it's not a gamble.
People are falling out of love with the game, because we're not engaging enough with the public.
"It's proven in other countries that it has been done. I'm a massive cricket fan, I'll always be a cricket fan - even if T20 goes through the roof I'll always watch a lot of cricket. A lot of cricket fans are like that.
"Even if it were a gamble, which it is not, you could always go back to what we have now because I think we'll always have that."
