City-based Twenty20 moves a step closer

The England and Wales Cricket Board executive is expected to agree at a Lord’s meeting on Tuesday morning to dispatch the referendum in which the 41 representatives of first-class counties, MCC and recreational boards will be invited to sanction an amendment to the governing body’s existing rules in order to accommodate a tournament including just eight teams from 2020 onwards.

ECB chief executive Tom Harrison confirmed, after his presentation on the latest plans for the competition which will borrow from the formats of the Indian Premier League and Australia’s Big Bash, that the 18 counties and MCC have all signed “media rights deeds”.

That assent, allowing ECB to add the new tournament to a portfolio offered to prospective media outlets this summer, is a significant indicator that - following a 28-day period in which responses to the postal vote must be received - it will be full steam ahead to a brave new world for cricket in this country.

To ease that passage, a minimum 31 of the 41 stakeholders must give their consent.

The amended constitution will pertain, it is understood, in a one-off capacity only for the planned eight-team Twenty20 rather than any further dilution of the counties’ existing right to take part in all professional domestic competitions.

Harrison and ECB’s T20 project lead Mike Fordham briefed all those set to receive the ballot, on the latest detailed plans in two meetings at the Royal Institute of British Architects in Marylebone - the first of which also featured an endorsement in person from England’s limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan.

Afterwards, Harrison spoke of moving the tournament from development to a “build phase”.

He said: “We’ll be taking our learnings to the board tomorrow to trigger the process which formalises our ability to have our new proposed Twenty20 tournament in our media rights process.

“We have 19 signed media rights deeds ... which give us confidence.

“It has given ECB express permission to represent each county’s media rights as part of the ECB’s media rights tender. It assigns those rights to the ECB.”

There were three dissenting counties last September when the ECB first established an ad-hoc mandate with a show of hands in favour of pursuing the eight-team option ahead of other possible structures for a new competition to run alongside the established NatWest Blast.

Asked if he is aware following the latest update of any significant doubts lingering among the 18 clubs, Harrison said: “No, I’m not.

“I’m sure everybody’s got their remaining concerns, and we’ll continue to try to address those.

“We’ve been very open and transparent about debating this. We’ve had the hard conversations ... and we’ve got to a point where everyone is comfortable about their own role in this.

“It’s up to each county to make their own decision, but they’ve been given the information and a very strong recommendation.

The ECB therefore has an evident approval already to press ahead with plans Harrison hopes will “connect with a family-and-children audience that are very difficult to get through to through traditional means”.

He added: “We have to think differently if we’re going to be successful at attracting family audiences to our competitions.

“This has been the most collaborative project ECB has ever undertaken.

“It’s been about creating something different. If we’re successful at that, we’ll be successful at boosting our existing tournaments as well as creating something dramatically different for English cricket and for a thriving new audience for English cricket.

“We’ve done an awful lot of work in understanding our county championship audience, our Blast audience, our 50-over audience ... what this is designed to do is complement that with a whole new audience that we’re currently not talking to.

“It is very clear we are not talking to as big an audience as we should be, because our tournaments are not as relevant as they should be.

“We need to change our thinking on that to be relevant to a new generation that responds to big box office occasions.”

The counties’ eventual acquiescence will be smoothed by an ECB commitment to repay a £1.3millon-a-year share of tournament revenue to each of them - while the number of matches likely to be broadcast free-to-air will remain a bone of contention with some.

ECB envisages up to eight of a projected 36 fixtures per season through July and August may be available to all TV viewers, but Harrison acknowledges a long road before any such details are definite.

“In an ideal world, I’d like to maximise revenue and reach,” he said.

“[But] we’re a pay TV business. We’re underwritten by pay TV.”