Fifty-over cricket will be relegated firmly to the bottom of England’s domestic priorities when the city-based 20-over tournament begins, but the County Championship is to be spared a clash with the new competition.
A report circulated to the ECB board this week includes a draft schedule for the 2020 season in which the city-based event spans 38 days across July and August at the exact time of the 50-over campaign. Even the finals will coincide.
The presentation, seen by The Times, states that “good quality cricket is required during the new T20 competition in locations other than where the new competition is played — for members to enjoy and for players to play”.
However, with a three-match series against Sri Lanka taking away the Test stars, and close to 100 leading white-ball players earmarked for the fresh Twenty20 tournament, the 50-over competition may feel like a second-team affair. Discussions are understood to have taken place over whether to include minor counties.
Ironically, what amounts to a downgrade will occur in 2020, the year after the 50-over World Cup is staged in England. Andrew Strauss, the managing director of England cricket, has made victory on home soil a priority of his tenure. But, as proposals stand, there would be no 50-over county cricket for the best white-ball players to prepare for ODI status thereafter.
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The report on the new T20 tournament also says that:
Players will be allocated in a draft designed as “a key marketing hook”. This means that established figures may find themselves away from their long-term home and supporter-base for the duration of the event.
Salary caps will promote “equalisation” of teams so that “all should have a fair chance of winning it every year”.
Team brands will not be those of existing counties — in other words, the side based at Headingley will not be “Yorkshire”.
A free-to-air component of broadcasting rights is considered “essential, as is the right digital carve-out to match the media behaviour of our target audiences”.
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The County Championship will not be reduced further after being cut from 16 to 14 matches next season.
A development group working on the project comprises four ECB marketing officers plus the chief executives of Somerset (Guy Lavender), Nottinghamshire (Lisa Pursehouse) and the Professional Cricketers’ Association (David Leatherdale).
Counties mandated the ECB in September to conduct further research into a competition that Tom Harrison, the chief executive, and Colin Graves, the chairman, believe is essential to boost participation and generate more lucrative media deals. Only Sussex, Surrey and Kent voted against, but others, including Essex and Somerset, stressed that final support depended on specific details after consultation with members. Graves has continued to meet counties to try to quash lingering unease. A source within cricket, made aware of the report, welcomed the answers to some of the questions that have sparked concern, but expressed doubts about the clash with the 50-over competition. “If the ECB is planning to sell tickets for the new event centrally there may be competition with counties trying to promote and sell their own fixtures,” he said. “That would seem odd, especially with a Test series also ongoing as another attraction.”
How the proposed ECB calendar will look in 2020
v Pakistan: May 21-25, May 29-June 2, June 11-15, June 19-23
v Sri Lanka: July 23-27, July 31-August 4, August 13-17
July 17 to August 23
July 17 to August 23
April 10 to July 9, then no matches until August 24 to September 29
The same might be true of the draft. As an example, Samit Patel, a Nottinghamshire stalwart, could find himself playing at Trent Bridge for a side based at Lord’s or Old Trafford. He would then return to his county for the end of the championship campaign — up to six matches — and rejoin team-mates who have just been opponents.
There will also be worries aboutthe status of the NatWest T20 Blast, which is to continue as an 18-county tournament. In the 2020 schedule it is placed in blocks in May and June before the knockout stages in July. Finals Day would take place a week before the new tournament in July, highlighting the impression that it will become a support act.
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In 2017, the T20 Blast is being moved to later in the season, starting on July 7, and will occupy part of the time earmarked for the new event three years later. From 2020, the T20 Blast is expected to be cut back to leave counties with five rather than the present seven guaranteed home games, though the shortfall will be more than balanced by a guaranteed sum of about £1.3 million from the city event.
The ECB report outlines six key principles. It says that the new competition must “completely differentiate itself from existing cricket” and that the window will allow all white-ball international players to feature.
For those who play across all formats, such as Joe Root and Ben Stokes, this may prove wishful thinking given the clash with Tests. Equally, if dates coincide with the Caribbean Premier League, some of the leading overseas players may opt to head for the West Indies instead. The board is determined that the injection of broadcasting money estimated at £35-40 million is not siphoned off in wages to players and cuts to agents.