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English cricket is braced for a civil war after plans for a multimillion pound Twenty20 league were leaked to the British media.
The plan, drawn up by MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw and Surrey chairman David Stewart, is for the creation of a nine-team league that excludes some county sides.
Dubbed the “New T20,” it will be based on the Indian Premier League, with teams participating in a 25-day competition to be held in the middle of the domestic season.
Teams would be based at the nine international venues in England, with “icon players” such as Hampshire’s Kevin Pietersen allocated to each side.
Bradshaw and Stewart claim the competition could generate up to STG85 million ($A175 million) per year through television rights, corporate sponsorship and match-day revenue. An unspecified amount of this money would be used to compensate the excluded sides.
Although the scheme came from Bradshaw and Stewart, both members of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s management committee, the news came as a surprise to ECB chairman Giles Clarke.
“It is not a document I have been involved with in the slightest,” Clarke said.
“Quite a lot of it is not necessarily going to receive a welcome from me. History and tradition is something only a fool breaks asunder. We need to ensure whatever is produced will be economically viable, will provide cricket people want to watch and the right format for our national side in all forms of cricket.”
Bradshaw and Stewart consulted the MCC, Surrey, Hampshire and Lancashire in drawing up their proposals. The response from the excluded counties was hostile.
“Our initial reaction is that we would be completely against this,” said Tom Sears, chief executive of Derbyshire.
“It would completely change the landscape. We would see the rich getting richer and the have-nots fall further behind. The only way it could work for a smaller county like Derbyshire is if the sum we received was astronomical. If it is not, then we would never consider it.”
The proposals will be formally discussed by the ECB next week.
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