ECB has lost the plot with IPL-type Twenty20 plans
In The Times Christopher Martin-Jenkins pulls no punches in putting forward his views on the ECB’s plans for Twenty20 cricket this coming summer, describing them as a “knee-jerk” reaction to the IPL.
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
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Presumably he [ECB chairman] Giles Clarke is motivated by a desperation to generate enough new television money (Sony paid £500million for ten years for the IPL rights) to be able to pay the England team even more to keep them free of the IPL's clutches.
Praising the Twenty20 Cup as “the ECB's greatest marketing success and a boon to all 18 first-class clubs, not least because their supporters, including some new ones attracted by the format, identify closely with the local team”, Martin-Jenkins believes tinkering with the format is “overkill” that will “only confuse”.
Martin Williamson is executive editor of ESPNcricinfo and managing editor of ESPN Digital Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa