ECB announces overhaul of domestic cricket
ECB announces changes after a wide-ranging meeting at Lord's
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Wednesday, 16, Jul 2008 10:42
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced plans to overhaul the domestic season from 2010, which includes the introduction of a new English Premier League (EPL).
As part of the plans, the existing Pro40 tournament will be axed in favour of a county-based, 50-over competition - the EPL - split into two ten-team divisions and will include the 18 counties plus two overseas teams.
inthenews.co.uk understands these teams will be from two of the other major Test-playing nations, such as South Africa, Australia or West Indies, and is unlikely to be Scotland, Ireland, India or Pakistan.
A decision on the two overseas teams will be made after ECB chief executive David Collier has "further conversations" with the interested parties.
As well as the EPL, the new domestic structure will feature an expanded Twenty20 county competition - the Twenty20 League - which will be played on Friday nights in July and August; will involve all 18 counties; and will be used as the qualification process for the new international T20 Champions League.
Alongside these two competitions, counties will continue to play 16 four-day County Championship matches - the format of which is unlikely to change.
The ECB board said the alterations were arrived at following "detailed market research, which… clearly demonstrated a spectator desire to watch more Twenty20 cricket in July and August".
"The EPL will be staged in June with the Twenty20 League being played in July, August and September and involving five home matches for each team," the board explained.
Chairman Giles Clarke said of the changes: "I am delighted that the board unanimously supported these creative proposals and I would like to congratulate everyone for their hard work and thank those who went to considerable time and trouble to produce documents for discussion.
"We have already received enormous broadcast and sponsor interest from around the world which was reported to the board by the chief executive David Collier.
David Stewart, the Surrey chairman, added: "These are extremely exciting and satisfying proposals for the future of domestic cricket in England and Wales. I am delighted to support them.
"They incorporate some excellent ideas and Keith Bradshaw (MCC chief executive) and I were delighted to be able to submit our ideas as part of the decision-making process and to build on the robust structure proposed by the ECB as a result of detailed consultations undertaken."