All these competing T20 leagues and problems when they clash with international matches can be solved in one easy go. We just need to have a global Twenty20 league that plays at certain stages throughout the season in different countries.
1. Have 10-12 franchises who all have an auction IPL style for the top players in the world. This creates a squad of around 10 international class players which is consistent throughout the season.
2. Then play a three week tournament in England in June as any normal T20 competition. During this period there is no international cricket taking place.
3. Then the league is on hold until November when another three week tournament is held with the same teams in Australia/New Zealand. Again there is an International break during this.
4. Then move on to South Africa in January/February where a third tournament with international break is played by the same teams.
5. Then the winners of three previous tournaments plus the team who did the best that didn't win a tournament are invited to India in March to play a Stanfordesque week long round robin with a grand final at the end to crown the global T20 champion.
Keep the IPL player format, so that when in England the team has to field a minimum of 5 English non-internationals, when in South Africa a minimum of 5 non-international South Africans etc. Each franchise can be affiliated with a domestic team in each nation that they play in, this would help with getting these domestic players, using the grounds and practice facilities and building a local identity and fan interest. They would also share gate receipts and TV money with the domestic sides too to help pump the money back into the game.
The venues for the preliminary tournaments and final can be rotated each year with the West Indies or Pakistan holding tournaments in some years too.
All T20 between international sides apart from at the T20 World Cup is banned.
This way you have around 10 weeks of the year dedicated to T20 and T20 only, allowing the other 42 for the Tests and ODIs to get on with it. The global aspect helps revenues, the consistency of players and coaches across the year helps the teams build an identity thus improve the quality and a fan interest, as does the link with domestic sides. The fact that T20 is restricted to 10 weeks keeps it relatively fresh to keep fan interest as well as allowing a big build up to these tournaments pumping up the significance.
I can't see how this could possibly not work. However of course it will never happen as the big cricket boards (not just the BCCI, though they are the biggest culprit) are all trying to grab their own individual piece of the pie and don't give a toss about anything else. I am worried that the pursuit of T20 gold will not only diminish test cricket (it will not kill it as test cricket will never die, but it could be seriously damaged), but then also consume itself as the average fan becomes bored with it as countless faceless and unremarkable tournaments pop across the world with no driving narrative or history to make them captivating, and they start switching off. Cricket can easily gamble on T20 for the next 5 years and come up very short indeed.
So it'll never happen, but one can dream.
1. Have 10-12 franchises who all have an auction IPL style for the top players in the world. This creates a squad of around 10 international class players which is consistent throughout the season.
2. Then play a three week tournament in England in June as any normal T20 competition. During this period there is no international cricket taking place.
3. Then the league is on hold until November when another three week tournament is held with the same teams in Australia/New Zealand. Again there is an International break during this.
4. Then move on to South Africa in January/February where a third tournament with international break is played by the same teams.
5. Then the winners of three previous tournaments plus the team who did the best that didn't win a tournament are invited to India in March to play a Stanfordesque week long round robin with a grand final at the end to crown the global T20 champion.
Keep the IPL player format, so that when in England the team has to field a minimum of 5 English non-internationals, when in South Africa a minimum of 5 non-international South Africans etc. Each franchise can be affiliated with a domestic team in each nation that they play in, this would help with getting these domestic players, using the grounds and practice facilities and building a local identity and fan interest. They would also share gate receipts and TV money with the domestic sides too to help pump the money back into the game.
The venues for the preliminary tournaments and final can be rotated each year with the West Indies or Pakistan holding tournaments in some years too.
All T20 between international sides apart from at the T20 World Cup is banned.
This way you have around 10 weeks of the year dedicated to T20 and T20 only, allowing the other 42 for the Tests and ODIs to get on with it. The global aspect helps revenues, the consistency of players and coaches across the year helps the teams build an identity thus improve the quality and a fan interest, as does the link with domestic sides. The fact that T20 is restricted to 10 weeks keeps it relatively fresh to keep fan interest as well as allowing a big build up to these tournaments pumping up the significance.
I can't see how this could possibly not work. However of course it will never happen as the big cricket boards (not just the BCCI, though they are the biggest culprit) are all trying to grab their own individual piece of the pie and don't give a toss about anything else. I am worried that the pursuit of T20 gold will not only diminish test cricket (it will not kill it as test cricket will never die, but it could be seriously damaged), but then also consume itself as the average fan becomes bored with it as countless faceless and unremarkable tournaments pop across the world with no driving narrative or history to make them captivating, and they start switching off. Cricket can easily gamble on T20 for the next 5 years and come up very short indeed.
So it'll never happen, but one can dream.
