• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

ECB scrap plans for new Twenty20 competition

pskov

International 12th Man
BBC SPORT | Cricket | Counties | ECB scraps plans for second T20

BBC said:
ECB scraps plans for second T20

The England and Wales Cricket Board has opted for one enhanced Twenty20 competition in next season's cricket calendar as opposed to two.

The ECB was considering having a P20 championship as well as the current Twenty20 Cup but decided against it after meeting county chiefs.

A new T20 competition was the ECB's answer to the Indian Premier League.

But the 2010 schedule will now include the LV County Championship, Friends Provident Trophy and Twenty20 Cup.

"These were extremely constructive talks and the consensus of opinion was clearly for three competitions, with a desire to preserve the primacy of Test cricket and the LV County Championship," said ECB chief executive David Collier.

Any extra T20 competition would have caused scheduling problems for the ECB, while attracting sponsors and broadcasters might have proved difficult in the current economic climate.

The Twenty20 World Cup was staged in England this year and caused England's first Test of the series against West Indies to start early on 7 May.

That is believed to have proved less than ideal and, with a similar scenario expected as England play two Test series each summer, the P20 has been scrapped.

The new look Twenty20 Cup is now expected to be played throughout the whole season and predominantly on Thursdays, Fridays and at weekends.

Details of how many overseas players permitted per county are yet to be announced by the ECB.

The FPT is set to be put back a few weeks - starting in June - and will include quarter-final and semi-final stages, while the Championship is set to remain a 16-match campaign.
Have to say I'm pleased. Having two T20 competitions in the summer was a thoroughly stupid idea in the first place. Hopefully they will now open up the current T20 Cup to more overseas players (say 4 per team) so that I maybe start to care about it a bit more. A happy byproduct of the T20 expansion is the elimination of the Pro 40 League which was another waste of space in my opinion. Still we'll never be able to do what English cricket really needs which is cull some of the counties that aren't pulling their weight (I'm looking at you Leicestershire) to concentrate the better players in fewer teams and bring the overall quality up.
 

morgieb

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Why did they want 2 T20 comps in the first place? Personally think that the pre-existing one should be the rival to the IPL. (Obv not private invested though).
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
The proposal should have been 8 city based franchises based at the Test grounds (Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cardiff, 2 London teams and Southampton).

That would have been a real rival to the IPL for 2 reasons:

1. The English summer is a natural international window - less conflict with boards if players want to participate.

2. England is safer than the subcontinent.
 

Scaly piscine

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
The proposal should have been 8 city based franchises based at the Test grounds (Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cardiff, 2 London teams and Southampton).

That would have been a real rival to the IPL for 2 reasons:

1. The English summer is a natural international window - less conflict with boards if players want to participate.

2. England is safer than the subcontinent.

Oi **** off omitting Riverside and including the barely Intercontinental Cup standard SWALEC stadium.
 

four_or_six

Cricketer Of The Year
Don't know about the alternative, but I'm definitely pleased that there's only going to be one competition.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Yeah, some of the better schedule alterations to come from the ECB of late. I've hated this 40-over nonsense since it was brought back in 2000-and-whenever-it-was (2005?), the 45-over stuff was just about acceptably comparable to 50-overs. The one good thing to come from the nonsense which was apparently two 20-over comps was that this was to be rid of. Now we've got rid of it without the 20-over overdose.

Hopefully this might mean the outcome which county cricket has needed for about a century - a bit less on-field cricket, and more time for planning and practising. Ideally we'd have more one-day cricket (be it more 50-overs or the return of 45-over stuff), but the shifting of the 50-over stuff out of May is good, because a wet start to the season essentially meant many players would get 5-6 OD games per season, which is simply not good enough. Ideally, there'd be reserve days for every 50-over game, to cut washouts and reduced-over affairs to an absolute minimum, though that may be asking rather too much.

I suppose the one disappointing thing is Twenty20 being played all season. It was perfect for both Twenty20 lovers and Twenty20 haters - as well as the players - when it was just a couple of midsummer weeks, with a distinct and clear definition that made it clear that it was totally different from First-Class and one-day cricket. Still, I'll take that as a by-product of this relatively good outcome.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
I suppose the one disappointing thing is Twenty20 being played all season. It was perfect for both Twenty20 lovers and Twenty20 haters - as well as the players - when it was just a couple of midsummer weeks, with a distinct and clear definition that made it clear that it was totally different from First-Class and one-day cricket. Still, I'll take that as a by-product of this relatively good outcome.
Not sure, I think it's a bad thing to have players playing just one format in a period of a month or so. It doesn't give much scope for Test hopefuls to play FC cricket between series. I think this is actually a good thing and *might* see some internationals fit an extra championship game into the season
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
The proposal should have been 8 city based franchises based at the Test grounds (Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cardiff, 2 London teams and Southampton).

That would have been a real rival to the IPL for 2 reasons:

1. The English summer is a natural international window - less conflict with boards if players want to participate.

2. England is safer than the subcontinent.
Nah. No need to rival IPL, which big money investor is gonna invest in cricket in England, like them Indian tycoons??.

Just keep it simple. Use the simple T20 competition that we have & just create a rule for how much international players a team can have.
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
The proposal should have been 8 city based franchises based at the Test grounds (Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cardiff, 2 London teams and Southampton).

That would have been a real rival to the IPL for 2 reasons:

1. The English summer is a natural international window - less conflict with boards if players want to participate.

2. England is safer than the subcontinent.
Don't make me angry, Mr Furball. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
 
Last edited:

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Not sure, I think it's a bad thing to have players playing just one format in a period of a month or so. It doesn't give much scope for Test hopefuls to play FC cricket between series. I think this is actually a good thing and *might* see some internationals fit an extra championship game into the season
It was only 2 weeks for the old Twenty20 Cup (which saw its last in 2008) wasn't it?

If there was ever a break in the international schedule - which there isn't, and hasn't been since 2000 - then internationals could play more domestic cricket. But as long as the winter's tour continues to finish in March or even April, and there is rarely so much as a week where there's no Test or ODI (or Twenty20 International 8-)) cricket, and on the precious rare occasion there is it's an invaluable chance for rest, it will remain the case that Test-and-ODI players play 2-3 games per season at the absolute best.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Unless I'm mistaken, the T20 Cup has always taken up the bulk of June.

Obviously players who are involved in the Test & ODI squads will get little chance to play for their counties regardless, but I am thinking of players who maybe aren't in the ODI squad and have a shot at playing Tests. They get to play some FC cricket in June while the ODIs are normally going on and put themselves in the window whereas in recent years the first ODI series has clashed with the T20s
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Yeah, that's to do with the coinciding of international and domestic schedules though, not the domestic schedule alone.

Someone could look-up when the Twenty20 Cup group stages of 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 were conducted if they want - I really CBA. My guess would be that they were usually around the 6-23 June ish mark.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Well yeah, but if they were around that mark then that would pretty much mean they clashed with the first ODI series, as there are generally ODIs being played around my birthday. It's not a big deal, but I think it could be helpful.

Pretty sure Ian Bell said something along those lines earlier on this season tbh.
 

Jungle Jumbo

International Vice-Captain
It's grown (almost) every year since the first season IIRC. And the dates have been adjusted to accomodate the international calendar and European Championship/World Cup football to maximise crowds.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Gained a quarter-finals stage from 2003 to 2004, and IIRR had a massive group-stage expansion 2004 to 2005 (which was much-criticised in the press as short-termism - and I agreed FTR). Not sure what expansions have taken place since 2005 to 2006 as my attention has shifted from negligable to nil, but if they made it too many more games they'd start intruding onto the Championship calendar.

Obviously it makes sense to timetable it to avoid clashes with Euro\World football championships, but that'd obviously only affect the competitions in 2004, 2006 and 2008.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Well yeah, but if they were around that mark then that would pretty much mean they clashed with the first ODI series, as there are generally ODIs being played around my birthday. It's not a big deal, but I think it could be helpful.

Pretty sure Ian Bell said something along those lines earlier on this season tbh.
As I say - there didn't have to be ODIs on in that timeframe, it was just the way the international calendar tended to work-out.
 

Top