Change is afoot. The England and Wales Cricket Board have revealed their radical plans for a new Twenty20 tournament to take place in 2020, with the model set to involve eight city-based franchises in a move that is focused on recruiting new fans, as well as making the sport financially viable for the money men. But what will the new tournament mean for county cricket and the current fans?
The New Tournament
It seems likely that the new T20 tournament will be part of the domestic calendar during the 2020 season, with cities due to start a bidding process on Wednesday for the right to be one of the eight host franchises. The imminent bidding war is a sign of the moving times in cricket and it is a world away from watching the post-lunch 'dibbly-dobblers' of a portly medium-pacer on a Sunday afternoon at your local county ground.
The new tournament will represent the first time in the history of domestic cricket that counties won't be represented, although the counties will be compensated (held to ransom) to the tune of £1.3m each and there is the promise of "significant free-to-air coverage" for the fans.
However, the ECB is set to start a bidding war for the television rights to the 36 games that are scheduled to take place during a 38-day window in August 2020. The ECB are hoping that at least eight of the matches will be free-to-air. Depending on your view of the meaning of the world 'significant', eight seems a paltry amount.
Insignificant
For viewers without Sky Sports or BT Sport, eight games will carry no meaning. There will be no time for a fan to nail their colours to the mast of one franchise as they will likely see each team only twice at most and as a result the tournament will carry little more significance than the current T20 Blast, which incidentally will continue as a secondary tournament earlier on in the summer when the new format is introduced to an already overwhelmed domestic cricket calendar in three years' time.
Therefore, the 50-over Royal London One Day Cup will be pushed further to the fringes as it struggles to justify its very existence each year and the T20 Blast will be further marginalised. With domestic cricket hardly thriving as a money-making product in the eyes of the ECB, the counties could be forgiven for wondering why the current limited overs tournaments haven't been given a similar amount of financial backing as the proposed event to make them more attractive.
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What do you think?
The Blast under its current guise has actually seen an increase in attendances and income despite the structure of the tournament remaining a work-in-progress at best. A ridiculous number of fixtures are played over a lengthy two-month period, with the 2017 edition due to start on 7th July before Finals Day rounds things up on 2nd September. The current fixtures carry no meaning because there is no set schedule for Twenty20 cricket and that is a new format was always going to be needed in a bid to make cricket matter. Put simply, only the most ardent fans know when and where fixtures are being played.
Only One Tournament Is Needed
However, two T20 tournaments taking place during June, July and August in 2020 is a laughable notion. Which spectators will care about who wins? A single T20 tournament that involves the best players in the world alongside county cricket's finest, representing city-based franchises, is what is needed, not two separate events.
The worry is that there has been so little consideration given to the current county cricket fan, who is now expected to fork out yet more money for more matches, with perhaps the added cost of travel to a new city-based franchise outside of their local area to consider. The proposed model for T20 is focused on recruiting new fans but the ECB ignores the current county stalwarts at their peril.
Confusion Reigns
There is no doubt that a new T20 tournament was needed in England as the T20 Blast was miles behind the Big Bash League in terms of product, quality and spectator experience. However, by pigeon-holing a new event into the summer of 2020, the ECB have already devalued the new and existing domestic tournaments by virtue of oversaturation.
One can only assume that they powers that be are hoping that the new T20 edition will prove to be an overwhelming success and the T20 Blast can be put to bed. It is a situation that financially struggling counties fear most.
Change is afoot and it should not be rejected out of hand but it is worrying when such change is attached with uncertainty and confusion. The ECB's proposals have served to cloud the future of county cricket at a time when the nature of the schedule ensures that the sport is already struggling to keep itself meaningful.
