England set for Big Bash-style T20 competition featuring eight city-based teams

The English domestic T20 cricket is all set for a change as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced their decision to introduce a Big Bash-style T20 competition that will involve only 8 teams compared to their traditional T20 competition that involved 18 county teams.

Moreover, this competition will take place during the summer in England and this will be the first professional T20 tournament that will feature cities instead of the English counties. Earlier, the England and Wales Cricket Board had suggested five alternatives that the counties could vote for.

The following were the choices that were presented to them as reported by the Telegraph,

- Two divisions of nine counties with eight home matches and two overseas players.

- Two regional leagues of nine counties with super eights play off.

- A ‘Premier league’ of nine counties and ‘Champions League’ of nine. Five of teams to be based on major centres of population with the rest decided on performance. Three overseas players in the Premier League, and one overseas in Champions League.

- Eight teams centrally operated by ECB playing at Category A grounds. Three overseas players per team. A draft system for players and squads between 14-16 per team. Natwest Blast to be played alongside in three regional groups.

- Ten team franchise competition with three overseas players per team.

ECB Chairman, Colin Graves, and Chief Executive, Tom Harrison, revealed the eight-team tournament as the most suitable choice for the future of the English cricket and were backed by most of the county teams apart from Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. There is still a lot of work to be done as the structure of the tournament still has to be planned.

The teams that will take part in the tournament are yet to be revealed along with the rules of picking players in a squad.

The tournament is expected to be a reality only in 2020 as the ECB expect a new television deal. Initially, the new tournament was planned to start in 2018 but with Sky Sports owning the television rights until 2019, the ECB are prepared to wait out until 2020 to get an improved deal that could guarantee the tournament’s success.

The next meeting is scheduled to take place on the 19^th of October this year and further details will be revealed regarding the teams that will take part in this revamped English T20 domestic tournament.