ECB'S NEW T20 LEAGUE

Choice of hosting venues to play key role in determining ECB's new T20 league's fate

by Rob Johnston • Last updated on

Cricbuzz understands that all traditional Test match grounds have unsurprisingly put in bids to host the new teams. © Getty

Decision day is looming for the first-class counties who have bid to host one of the eight teams in English cricket's planned new T20 competition. After weeks of deliberation by the ECB panel tasked with deciding the venues, the counties will find out on February 14 whether they have been successful and some are likely to be left disappointed.

The new tournament, scheduled to begin in 2020, will consist of eight city-based teams playing 36 games in total during high summer. Each team will play four home matches and there will be an IPL style play-off system as well as a player draft. There will also be some free-to-air TV exposure. ECB also hope the new tournament will help grow the game in England in much the same way that the Big Bash has done in Australia.

Cricbuzzunderstands that all the traditional Test match grounds - Lord's, The Oval, Edgbaston, Old Trafford, Headingley and Trent Bridge - have unsurprisingly put in bids to host the new teams. There have also been bids from Hampshire, Durham and Glamorgan while Gloucestershire and Somerset are understood to have applied too, although their bids may just be for individual matches. With more applications than teams to host, some counties are likely to be left disappointed when the decision is announced.

"We have submitted an application to host one of the new T20 teams at Edgbaston," Warwickshire CEO Neil Snowball confirmed to Cricbuzz. "We have the largest cricket venue outside of London at 25,000 capacity and with Birmingham being the youngest city in the country in terms of demographics plus a large South Asian population, we are confident that the new competition has the potential to be a huge success in the second city."

It is inconceivable that the ECB will not choose the six major Test match grounds to be hosts. The competition - which was predicted last year to make a GBP 15 million loss in its first season - will need as many ticket sales as it can get to drive revenue, so hosting the matches in the biggest cities at grounds with the biggest capacities makes sense. However, some areas of the country, such as the south-west and north-east, could end up not represented at all.

One county chairman told Cricbuzzthat he expected the ECB to choose the largest Test match grounds as the main venues but stipulate that some matches must be played elsewhere in a bid to spread things around the country. That could mean the likes of Durham and the Olympic Stadium in London potentially hosting individual matches. That approach would also take some of the pressure off the main venues who would otherwise be expected to sell out four home matches in a short space of time.

It is also understood that another possibility which the ECB are considering, proposed by some of the bidding counties, is for a team located in the south-west to have their home games rotated between Bristol, Taunton and Cardiff instead of them being based at just one venue. Choosing Taunton as a venue was, however, described by one county source as "unlikely" although sharing games between Cardiff and Bristol, two current international grounds, is another option.

The venue selection has been one of the more sensitive issues surrounding the proposed tournament. Although it was overwhelmingly voted in by the counties last year, there is a fear among some of the smaller first-class clubs that by hosting all the teams at the traditional Test match grounds it will increase the gap - already present in prestige, finance and playing resources - between the counties who currently host international cricket and those who do not.

The ECB have tried to allay these fears by guaranteeing all first-class counties an annual minimum sum of either GBP 1.3 million or a share of net revenues from the competition, whichever is higher, but there is still some uncertainty about how much extra money the host counties will receive. That issue has yet to be successfully resolved to the satisfaction of all first-class clubs with the smaller ones keen to ensure the distribution of monies is fair to all.

Last year, Essex Chairman John Faragher told Cricbuzzthat he thought the new tournament could hasten the end of the 18-county system and leave domestic cricket consisting "of just eight regions" with the others becoming mere "feeder counties." He also said that he was not surprised the bigger clubs were in favour of the competition. "Surprise, surprise they can't wait to get their hands on this competition," he said. "All those grounds are losing money, unable to sell their own domestic T20s and they like the idea of staging tournaments."

That is not something the ECB would agree with. When revealing details of the planned tournament last March, the ECB's Chief Executive Tom Harrison, said: "I firmly believe that a new T20 competition can be such a positive catalyst for the game here in England and Wales to attract a family audience. This is about growth and securing our future. As guardians of the game, it is the responsibility of all of us to steer cricket to a strong future and to pass it on in even better shape."

It is understood that no decision has yet been taken regarding the names of the eight teams. The priority has been to confirm the venues and once that has been finalised and announced, work will then begin on developing the tournament's branding, including the team names. This will also allow the successful host venues to have an input into the names of their own teams.

Warwickshire are keen to build on their Birmingham Bears brand, already used in the current Natwest T20 Blast, so may want the Edgbaston based team, if their bid is successful, to be named in a similar fashion but Yorkshire Chairman Steve Denison last year ruled out any team located at Headingley being called 'Leeds'.

© Cricbuzz