Old Trafford could be one of hosts of new T20 cricket competition

THE Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester looks likely to be one of the host venues for a new eight-team Twenty20 cricket competition.

The cricket counties have voted in favour of bringing in the new tournament, which will take place in addition to the existing 18-team T20 Blast and could start as early as 2018, if given the go-ahead.

If it wins approval, the new tournament will be held at city-based Test grounds.

The proposal, one of five on the table, was passed by a majority vote at Lord’s on Wednesday, follwing discussions between representatives of the 18 first-class counties, the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) and the MCC, which is the guardian of the laws and spirit of cricket.

Surrey, Kent and Sussex are believed to have been against the move.
The counties will now take the proposal to their memberships before the decisive vote by the ECB board in October.

The PCA also plans to hold further talks with players.

ECB chairman Colin Graves, the former executive chairman of Yorkshire, said on the BBC: “We’ve all been looking at how we can use domestic T20 for an even bigger purpose, especially getting more young people to play.
 
“The next steps for us all, as a game, will be to extend the discussions and get valuable input from players, members and other key voices across the game.”

An ECB statement did not go into the specifics, but Essex chairman John Faragher revealed some details.

For example, the teams will contain some overseas players, with other players selected from the counties.

Matches will be played at Test grounds but will remain under the control of the ECB. It will be a two-to-three week tournament, allowing players to be released by their counties to essentially sign with the ECB for that

Counties that do not host any games will receive somewhere in the region of £1.3m.

The new T20 will not be a franchised competition.

“There is work to be done,” said Faragher. “They are looking at 2018, possibly 2019, but that is not cast in stone yet. It could be 2020 because we have got to get it right.”