Proposal for English IPL-style event

I think Twenty20 cricket is the future in getting pulic to the ground and getting revenue in to cricket. With england copying the IPL format and other test nations are going to be doing the same as they want to be invovled in the revenue that can be generated from this Twenty20 franchise based tournament. Instead of each test nation producing there own tournament why not have one major tournament that is played each year in the major test nations. This will allow exposure that cricket is graving for all over the world see the best players playing against each other and also keeps the interest with it being played in different countries. This could be ideal for all cricket players, fans, tv companies etc and taling as huge cricket fan myself it would be something that would i would very much enjoy watching. Please visit - http://dipzcricketworld.blogspot.com

Those who really like n love cricket will watch T20,those who dont,may well like and love it eventually.Those who only like tests and/or ODIs, are not purists but merely habituated to particular forms. Its like tennis lovers saying, 'we dont like 5 set mathces, but only 3 set matches!!'. Ridiculous. If a form of cricket widens the appeal of the game, i cant see what the problem is.Its not as if the other forms are being killed off.If those eventually die,then sorry, that means those forms were not adaptable to modern day demands. Ultimately newer forms of music captures mass appeal, some live on, others die out.Give T20 a chance.Democracy does not work in market economies - so smaller counties either bunch into groups of 3 - to form e additional teams and split the winnings or stop whining.Whoever heard of a game surviving merely for the members of small clubs rather than those who play and watch it.If this form dies out eventually and test and ODI live on: Darwinian justice!

20/20 cricket will bring in revenue until the novelty wears off. It is vital that the County Championship and Test match structures are preserved - bring in more Championship games - mix of 3 day and 4 day games with the former at the beginning and end of the season. Drop the Pro40 league to make way for more 20/20 fixtures if absolutely necessary. Professional cricketers can only prove their skill/ability in the longer form of the game something which is lost in the 'wack-it'format donwalsall

Good: Identifies features for more commercially successful Twenty20 competition - June-July, 25 days, a halt to other domestic and international cricket and need to include international stars. Each form should have own place in domestic schedule. Does not included teams as a gimmick - A-sides, IPL winners or Stanford team. Shows investors are out there Bad: 9 franchises - see Giles Clarke comments. Salary-cap and quota on homegrown players - anti-employment law and Twenty20 not best form to develop youngsters [Better idea would be scrap Second XIs and have strong Centres of Excellence competition for MCC and Uni's]. No thought of achieving balance with rest of the game - The Friday-night Twenty20 would fail. ECB a 'stakeholder', owners 'New Twenty20 Ltd' - Profit ahead of sustainability.

Well.....the thing is, if theres too many leagues, well that's not gonna go well. I'm tired of purists though, I'm sorry but I am.

The novelty factor is fast wearing off, there just isn't any substance in it. Real cricket supporters don't like it and casual fans will move onto something else.

Strange how the proposal comes from within the group of "test match" counties, isn't it? And how thoughtful of them to offer a few crumbs from the table to the "poor relations". It is a nonsense. Any competition must preserve the current 18-county structure. What supporter will feel any affinity to, say, a North London side, or an East Midlands outfit that never even appear on their local county ground? If it is accepted - which I sincerely doubt - I hope that the 9 counties "left outside" form their own breakaway competition.

What I don't understand is why all these millions of pounds are being poured into this Mickey Mouse format. It's just going to create a huge unsustainable bubble that's going to burst spectacularly, probably sooner rather than later. England was the first country to have Twenty20, and the overwhelming evidence is that the novelty has already started to wear off here. Crowds for Twenty20 Cup matches have been well down on last season (despite the unprecedented hype), but it seems that those responsible for running cricket in this country are not prepared to face reality, and are determined to press ahead with a further expansion. Most cricket fans I know don't even like Twenty20, and even those who do think there's already too much of it. If Middlesex v Surrey in the Twenty20 Cup, with all the traditional rivalry that entails can't even half fill Lord's, can anyone honestly see Franchise A v Franchise B in the EPL doing any better?

A world 20/20 with domestic teams involved will clash with international matches and will be a real hassle to organize.Imagine flying teams half way around the world just to play a single 3 hour match. Even in football club competitions like the Champions it is a "local" affair (within Europe, anyway) with a limited number of matches. What I would welcome, is the ICC organizing a competition between the winners of local 20/20 cups. Instead of the BCCI doing it as a private venture for only a few countries, you could have a yearly world cup of 16 or 18 teams (depending on whether Bangladesh are in or not - Zimbabwe should certainly not be). A 16 team competition should take no more then 10-14 days to complete and would give a real incentive for local teams to win their domestic competition. Even better - if you used the "State of Origin" rules players wouldn't be able to migrate and would only play for their home teams.

Yeah I like the point made by Nitesh, down the road that really is the only logical way to go, but I think you need to be mindful that the BCCI doesn't exactly have a history of sharing- look at the ICL, and they will block moves to internationalise 20/20 leagues as they will claim (with some cause i'll admit) that any new leagues only exist because of the success of the IPL. I like the proposal to give part of the ECL money to the other international boards- that's sensible. Nitesh's point also helps to avoid the major problem of a 20/20 tournament window- that it would inevitably clash with a particular international series. Really September and October are the only months where test nations who host matches in that period can move to another time in the year. The IPL if given a dedicated window in April and May would by necessity kill West Indian test cricket- as you can't really play tests there reliably at other times of year, and you cant get all the games required done in March