The franchise debate – what does the future hold for English T20 cricket?

The vote

Twenty20 cricket in England. We are the creators, but we are far from being the innovators.

We have the Indian Premier League, the Australian Big Bash League and the Caribbean Premier League, among others. We do not have an equivalent in England. Through various name changes and tweaks to the formatting and scheduling, the English domestic Twenty20 scene has always comprised all 18 county sides in its primary tournament, now called the T20 Blast.

But that is all set to change in the next couple of years.

On the day I finish writing this piece, the highly-anticipated, eagerly-awaited, all-important decision regarding the future of Twenty20 cricket in England was confirmed. Needing 31 out of 41 votes for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to change its constitution, only three did not back the proposed plans. Three South East counties were the trio to not vote for the plans, with Essex and Middlesex voting against and Kent abstaining.

The results of the vote and the subsequent changing of the ECB’s constitution will in turn hand the board increased control and influence over the domestic county circuit. This increased power will be used to create a brand new T20 tournament set, perhaps fittingly, for 2020 as a long-awaited, genuine rival to the likes of the IPL.

Previously, the ECB’s constitution had specifically and explicitly stated that all domestic competitions had to involve all 18 counties and needed at least 31 votes to be able to make any sort of changes. The ‘smaller’ counties had feared that the new tournament would potentially have a damaging impact on their long term viability as a club, as well as their ability to attract both fans and players.

However, the majority voted for the proposed plans, with each county receiving £1.3 million per year as a result of the tournament going ahead in three years’ time. 

Is this ‘compensation’? Is it a fair policy/compromise? Or is it a case of almost blackmailing/bullying the counties in a sense that they would be expected to comply?

Jonathan Agnew, cricket correspondent for the BBC, thinks that the thought of such an amount of money coming in annually could have been an offer too good to refuse.

“Yes, that was the obvious sweetener that the ECB would put their way,” says Agnew. “But it's a lot of money. It adds up to these overheads that the board has to pay to make this work so you can see through hell and high water that they do make it work.

“It's a million quid for most of them doing nothing and as we know they're all skint. So obviously that was the sweetener that the ECB knew would win some over because there are concerns that this is cutting back in county cricket through the back door.

“So they've had to be won over, they've got a million quid… I mean I don't know what they're going to do with it but they can pay some bills off and hopefully pay some debt off.”

The idea for the new T20 competition is one that has been sought for a long time, particularly by ECB chairman Colin Graves and the Chief Executive Tom Harrison. They had taken a number of defeats in their previous attempts and it was felt this could well be their last chance saloon, especially if they did not secure the 31-vote majority.

But the winning margin will serve as a huge step in what they see as the right direction for English county cricket, meaning they are now a huge step closer to achieving their hopes of introducing city-based cricket and in turn lessening the control of the counties, while bringing in new revenues.

“I think they've decided that if they don't bring in a new tournament now, Big Bash-style or IPL-style, that they'll be too late to do it - and they might be right in that respect,” muses Agnew.

“Obviously the counties are wary because a lot of the politicking has been about just chopping down to eight teams and obviously the counties fear that that's going to be the thin end of the wedge as far as county cricket is concerned.

“That's been a lot of the battle behind the scenes. So I guess that's why they've done it, they're going to try and make something new that they're going to sell to broadcasters.”

The trendsetters 

Following the hugely successful launch of the IPL back in 2008, the first tournament of its kind, several countries have since followed the path set out by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and into the world of franchise-based T20 tournaments.

The Twenty20 format has continued to be revolutionised over the past 15 years since its inception in 2003, with a number of differing competitions having been at least trialled, with varying degrees of success. Where Lalit Modi and India laid the foundations nine years ago, others soon proceeded with their own respective developments in creating what they hoped would be similarly-popular T20 competitions.

The Australians transformed their domestic Big Bash T20 tournament into their own version of the IPL, with the BBL proving a roaring success since its inaugural season back in late 2011/early 2012. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka stole a march on the rest of the world as they joined their subcontinent rivals India in creating their own Premier Leagues in 2012.

Although both leagues failed to last more than two seasons after their initial debuts, there was an obvious signal of intent from the respective boards to take advantage of an evidently-growing market. While the Sri Lankan Premier League did not make it past their first tournament in August 2012, the BPL was successfully relaunched and rebranded in 2015 following a two-year hiatus after a number of suspensions for match fixing.

The West Indies, too, introduced their own Caribbean flavour to the growing conglomerate of global T20 tournaments in 2013 with the establishment of their own Premier League, heading into its fifth season this summer. Following two failed attempts in the preceding three years, Pakistan became the fourth country from the subcontinent to try their luck at launching a franchise-based T20 tournament in February 2016.

Earlier this year, Cricket South Africa unveiled plans for their own flagship T20 league to be inaugurated towards the end of this year. The CSA’s intent to build a tournament rivalling the likes of the IPL and the BBL has already seen eight marquee players sign up for the eight proposed franchises, with the likes of Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan and Jason Roy agreeing two-year contracts with the league.

It is, then, perhaps quite surprising the England Cricket Board does not have such a tournament to its name. After all, the whole T20 format was devised and debuted via the ECB, way back in 2003 yet we are yet to see that rewarded with any sort of ground-breaking, money-making competition that the format has created for others. With the proposed new South African Premier League, that will be seven out of the nine major cricketing nations to have at least trialled a franchise-based T20 league, with England and New Zealand the only two yet to have dipped their feet into the water.

With so many established tournaments around, and likely even more appearing by the time the new English tournament gets underway, the need to hit the ground running as soon as possible is one that will be heavily important when summer 2020 comes around.

As Agnew puts it, it is too far gone to use the first year or two as trial runs, it needs to be the finished product, or as close to it as possible, when the first ball is bowled.

“I think they're beyond trialling. I think there's too much money and too much at stake for this to be a trial. This has to work or fail. It's a question of how patient they are to start with, what their numbers are like. You know they are going to look to a very big satellite/pay-per-view television company to put the money in while at the same time accepting that some of it has to be on terrestrial.

“If Sky and BT are sensible they'll see that actually this thing being on terrestrial is good for them. I never really understood the reason for them wanting it exclusively because you need that solid base. It might work, but it's by no means guaranteed. 

“And I'm hoping that it does work, because it's going to be a very expensive cock-up if it doesn't and it won't leave us looking very good and that would be a shame because English cricket is the best thing. You know we devised T20 cricket.

“All these reasons along the line, the fallout with the Indians, Allen Stanford, you know this stuff… we've kind of lost our way a bit, lost our focus and that's a shame and it is going to be difficult for us to pull it back.” 

Logistical issues?

Of course, it is not always as straightforward as simply picking six or eight cities, attracting sponsorship, owners, players and supporters as well as fitting it into a schedule so as to maximise the full potential of said tournament. England, in particular, is perhaps the nation that could indeed prove to encounter the most difficulty in providing those sorts of aforementioned requirements. It would not be quite as simple for the ECB to generate franchises in the manner that India and Australia have done with so much success over the course of the last nine years.

One of the key differences, and in turn one of the key obstacles, between England and those who have established franchise leagues is the extent of the domestic teams and the logistical problem of creating franchises. In Australia, the domestic circuit houses just six teams which made it easier for Cricket Australia to create eight franchises from cities in each state, with an additional two made up from Sydney and Melbourne.

It was a similar story in the West Indies, where each domestic team were converted into franchises, with the Windward Islands represented by Saint Lucia and the Leeward Islands being represented initially by Antigua and latterly St Kitts and Nevis.

While India have a considerable amount of domestic sides playing throughout the country, the support of those sides is not as partisan as it is in England. That English support is where a number of major stumbling blocks have originated from. There is a strong opposition from a number of county fans up and down the country, worried about what the proposed new tournament may mean for their beloved clubs.

The proposals

So, what is this proposed tournament all about? Well, first of all, it is not a franchise-based tournament by definition. Whereas the teams competing in the likes of the IPL, CPL and the proposed new South African tournament are owned and bankrolled by private investors and sponsors, the eight sides in the English version will be owned by the ECB. For that reason, the term ‘franchise’ has been and will be generally avoided when discussing the teams that will be competing in the new league.

The tournament itself will run in a 38 day block and include 36 games, set to run through the summer school holidays. The need for the tournament to be played in a straight block is an obvious choice, with all of the aforementioned tournaments set up in blocks generally between three and six weeks, with at least one game per day.

With the T20 Blast in previous years, games had been spread out across the summer, culminating in a late-August finale. This in turn led to a number of considerations regarding the schedule and the format of England’s domestic T20 offerings.

But, as the premier worldwide T20 competitions continued to grow, further considerations were being made regarding the way forward for the shortest format in England. With the 18 teams competing, it was always going to be difficult to get more than a couple of games on television per week, what with the fixture structure of the Blast limiting games generally to a Friday and a Sunday.

Peter Trego, one of the finest white ball players on the county circuit, was similarly coy when I asked him whether he was for or against the ideas for a new tournament.

“It's a difficult one to ask, really,” pondered the Somerset man. “I'm for it in regards to what I know people want these days - a short fix of entertainment. People aren't going to spend 6-8 hours watching a game of 50 over cricket anymore, as much as it used to be.

“There are people that do that, but that's your real, die-hard cricket supporters - you look 10-15 years down the line, what are the teenagers of now going to be doing in their 20s, their 30s?

“Everything leads to think that it needs to be that 3 hour game which obviously Twenty20 is. So, for it, but it would be a huge shame if it was to the detriment of a hundred years or more of history of county cricket.

“You obviously understand as a player that the game has to move on, the game has to be appealing to younger people and I think players that have been involved in cricket for as long as I have in particular, realise that, even club cricket - people don't have those Tuesday, Thursday nights where we all used to spend our time with our mums and dads down at the local cricket club, doing ground duties. Those Saturdays and Sundays you almost lived at the cricket club.

“People don't have that much time to invest in their social lives anymore so Twenty20 obviously is going to fill that void, there's no doubt about it.

“But I can't see how it wouldn't work. If you're a cricket fan and you've got a makeup of eight of the best English players in the area plus three overseas players… I mean the standard is at least going to match the IPL and Big Bash I would say. I think it would be fantastic.

“The shame is obviously the player pool is reduced but that's when the English county cricket needs to step up. With the T20 Blast still going on, it needs to be in place for the rest of the guys.”

The broadcast deal

The idea of having at least some T20 cricket on free to air television, like they have in the Big Bash, is something that is being pushed forward for the new tournament. Agnew is one of a number of high-profile names within the sport in England to actively encourage the inclusion of domestic T20 cricket on free to air television.

Currently, the Blast’s broadcasting rights are owned by Sky, who as of February this year had scheduled at least 37 games for the 2017 campaign. The return of live cricket to free to air television has been slowly increasing in the past few years, with the IPL having had seasons shown on ITV4 and Dave showing matches from the CPL last year.

Moreover, live cricket made a return to terrestrial television for the first time since the 2005 Ashes series, with a selection of 2016-17 BBL games having shown on Channel Five. The numbers for live T20 cricket shown in England are increasing, but the evidence shows one current common denominator – the fact that it is just these worldwide tournaments being shown, not our domestic matches. 

And this is one area in which Agnew believes the ECB can improve English T20, possibly even without a huge revamp. 

“All really that the Blast is missing is terrestrial television coverage,” says Agnew.  “I mean before I start, people are bound to say ‘oh you would talk about terrestrial television wouldn't you’, being a BBC cricket correspondent, but that's irrelevant.

“I don't care who screens free to air cricket, I just want someone to do it. I'm not beating the BBC drum at all. In fact, Test Match Special on the radio has done well out of BBC television not having the rights, so I'm not coming in from that sort of angle at all. But who knows what might happen to the Blast if they showed it on terrestrial telly, and that's my biggest issue in a way in the debate about this new tournament.”

It seems an obvious point regarding free to air coverage, yet there are no plans to incorporate in the near future, at least until the new tournament in 2020. The viewing figures comparison between the final day of the 2015 Ashes series hosted by Sky and the 2005 series shown on Channel Four depicted the huge disparity between the two, with the latter drawing in almost 20 times as many viewers. 

“It's something like golf in a way,” continues Agnew. “In that here you have two sports who have decided to sell most of their coverage in golf's case, and all of their coverage in cricket's case, to satellite television and then they're wondering why audiences are dwindling.

“Not just audiences but everything that goes with it - participation, interest, recognition of players... it's not rocket science to put the two together and therefore I think you've got to be very careful blaming the product rather than blaming the reason.

“I think they'll think they're two different things... I think relevance is probably the biggest problem the ECB face in making this new competition work.”

“I keep making this point but terrestrial broadcasters cannot pay… I saw a comment from Steve Dennis, the Yorkshire chairman, saying that terrestrial broadcasters have to pay the market value. Well that's silly, they can't pay the market rate - they can't do that.

“But they bring something else, they bring reach, they bring audience, they bring easy viewing. That has a value, it's not about pounds, shillings and pence.”

With such mammoth viewing figures from back in 2005, with final day figures showing just over 8 million people tuning in compared to under 500,000 in 2015, it is hard to believe the lack of live cricket that has been shown on terrestrial television, let alone the free to air equivalents.

“Satellite television has become very expensive and people just don't think it's good value for money. There's also a hard-core of people who refuse to buy it and that's always going to be the case. I don't think now that cricket is going to make an impact off free to air telly.

“I mean it's been going now since 1990 and, I'm not knocking Sky they've been terrific at their overseas tours and the commitment to it has been fantastic, but it just struck me that 2005 for that Ashes series that was the best possible combination.

“You know you had Sky and Channel Four both in competition with each other. Channel Four were broadcasting on terrestrial television to really big audiences and that was key. I don't think you could have asked for any more back then as a cricket administrator, unless you're just greedy.

“It has to be on terrestrial television, they have to. There’s talk about having 20% of games on and I don't think that's enough, I don't think it'll be enough to sell it to the wider public in which case there's no point in having it.

“People can watch it, can't they - I think that's key. I mean I think we're going to see a huge bounce in rugby after this year's Six Nations, which was fantastic. I mean there you are you've got millions of people watching on a Saturday afternoon. I really don't think you can underestimate, or overestimate depending on which way you want to put it, the relevance of television.

“I mean it's why they look admirably at the Big Bash, and rightly so, in Australia and how successful that's been. Well that's a) because it's on terrestrial television, as is all their cricket,  b) they have a wonderful climate and also c) and this is the next bit, they have these big cities in which it's easy to build an alliance where that hasn't been one before. I mean you know it's through Australia, through India... you can easily build a Delhi team, a Melbourne team, a Sydney team, a Chennai team - whatever it happens to be.

“You've got these vast cities and that's an easy thing to market, an easy team to produce. But here, you can't even have a team called Leeds because most of Yorkshire won't go and watch it or support it. It's just different here and I don't think that's a problem, I think different is good.

“I don't think we want to go copying things just because what works somewhere means it would work here. Our cricket is traditionally built around the counties and those supports are there.”

Agnew’s thoughts are shared with similar passion by Somerset’s Trego, when asked about the possibility of the proposed tournament including matches that would be shown free to air.

“Yeah, that's a great idea. I mean sport should be as inclusive as possible, the prices you get charged now for Sky and BT and various things are starting to get ridiculous, so any time that a sport can get involved and get good quality viewing on free television I think is a positive.”

Marketing/relevance

Again, like Agnew, Trego laid on fears of the new competition finding relevance once it is officially unveiled and underway. The all-rounder suggested that the marketing strategies could well be a major player in helping the proposed tournament to reach the heights of the likes of the IPL and the BBL. Marketing, Trego says, can help a sport go a long way or take a dive in terms of respective potential.

“You only have to look at what they've done for darts, for God's sake,” exclaims Trego, almost exasperated. “You cannot tell me that sitting 60 metres away from a dartboard is a better spectacle than watching a game of T20 cricket!

“But the marketing that's gone into it and the intelligence that has gone into the Premier League darts has made it into an absolute phenomenon. They've made it sell out everywhere. They've made, with all due respect to those guys because they're phenomenally talented, they've made a load of guys that look like they should be propping up a bar look like absolute rock stars - that's the level of quality marketing that's gone into darts.

“If they put that much attention into Twenty20 cricket, no matter what you call it, Somerset vs Gloucestershire or Bristol vs Birmingham, I'm sure it would have the impact that they're looking for. That would be my only argument to not do it, is actually all this money you are spending on marketing and all of those things that go with it, how about do it with what you've already got?”

It is a salient point, and one that also resonates with Agnew, who would also have been keen on expanding the current Blast, rather than integrate a brand new competition into the English summer schedule.

“I would have just liked to see them really address the Blast with the loyalties that are there, the years of support that's already there and built up,” says the ex-England fast bowler.

“I mean I think they could. I'm not jumping up and down with excitement about it as you can probably tell but… I would like to have seen them really invest with the Blast first, but I'll have my word and I'll have my verdict and then you accept it's not going to change so you go with it and that's my view, really, if we have it.

“I would love to have seen them treat the Blast like they're going to treat this new tournament and given that a go rather than chop it down to these teams. We're told the Indians aren't going to be available, the England players won't be available... you know we're not giving us much of a starting point are we?

“I think if you're starting a new tournament, I can see why they'd want to do that. You wouldn't start our cricket again with 18 teams if you were drawing a line and starting it again. But we have got 18 teams and it's the way that our country is structured. And it's a good thing in a way because we reach far and wide. It's not like India and Australia with these vast metropolitan areas and not a lot in between. Our country is a big spread and our support.”

History

The county game itself is full of history, from the Championship to the limited overs tournaments. Having created the T20 setup back in 2003, the ECB will finally be looking to change tack with regards to the shortest format as they burst into ‘franchise’ territory for the first time. It’s something that will, and has already, cause divided opinions. Some will point to the heavily aforementioned success of the IPL and the like, along with the massive TV deals that would be potentially on offer and the subsequent riches that would go with it.

Others will say that such an overhaul could prove to be detrimental to the county game, with such a heavy focus likely being put on the new tournament. The initial plans suggest the Blast being played beforehand, with the players for the city-based competition to be chosen in a draft prior to the Blast taking place, with 80 elite English players set to sit out of what would likely be seen as second-tier tournament, rightly or wrongly.  

However, it would still be a T20 competition in England featuring all 18 counties, potentially featuring even more home-grown talent being brought through the second XIs and Academy sides. Loyal county fans would still be able to get their fix of domestic cricket and, given the potential for those aforementioned players coming through, would be able to witness local talent more than perhaps they had in previous years, with cross-county transfers and Kolpak signings, for instance.

It is all so intriguing, yet there will always be fears leading in to it, whether you’re for or against the proposals. Trego is mindful of the variety of possibilities for the new tournament, be it positive or negative, and maintains that the marketing of the competition could well be crucial in terms of the success that it can have.

“If it's done right, like I said you get 10, 12, 15 thousand people going to watch the darts, so if it's done right… my worry is that not much marketing in cricket is done particularly well so that is a concern of mine. But if it's done to the level that they've managed in darts and various other sports then I'm sure it will bring a new audience.

“But again you're going to get probably the more stubborn, slightly older cricket fan that are not going to watch it out of principle because they want to watch Somerset or they want to watch Middlesex or whoever it may be. I think there is a case that there may be a ‘I'm not buying into it’ sort of thing because they love their counties, that is a potential [barrier].” 

The supporters

One major sticking point in terms of the against argument regarding the new tournament, or at least one of the most common debates that has flared up, is that of the loyal county supporters and their respective allegiances towards their clubs. How can you get these faithful fans involved as much as possible? Is there a way?

“That'll be a personal choice thing,” says Trego. “Knowing cricket fans and certainly the age demographic of a lot of them, I think there is a definitely a potential that you could get that stubborn ‘I watch Somerset I'm not interested’ attitude. How you get round that I'm not too sure.”

It is the same feeling that Agnew has in terms of the respective fanbases within county cricket, and those who would be likely to travel to see a completely different team to the one they have supported for decades, and one that may have little or no connection to their county.

“They're going to have to be very careful how they structure it and avoid Leicestershire and Derbyshire playing at the same time that this team is playing in Nottingham, for instance.

“They will have more of a chance if more games are on terrestrial television and I go back to that point again, I really think that's the driver. They've got to create interest quickly and that's the obvious way of doing it.

“Leicestershire's support for the cricket team comes down from Market Harborough and up here in Melton Mowbray and across in Colborough, you're not just talking about Leicester and that's what's important. You've got to keep appealing to that family in Market Harborough to go up to Nottingham to watch this team and just because of this new team in Nottingham, why should people go and support it?

“Why would people from Derby go and watch this team? That’s what they've got to latch onto, somehow they've got to find a key... they might find it I mean I'm not saying it's absolutely going to be a failure but these are the challenges that the board does face if they are going to make it work.”

Need for change?

So, what does Agnew actually think of the proposals? It is no secret, if not just from the above remarks, that it is not exactly something he is 100%, fully behind. The question he regularly poses when talking to me is that is there anything wrong with the Blast at present? Is there really a need for change? The surge in popularity has been shown in the last couple of years with consistent, increased ticket sales across the country.

The YouGov SportsIndex Annual Report 2017 further added fuel to the argument for the Blast, with England’s domestic T20 tournament breaking their top 10 in terms of ‘buzz ratings’. Year on year, statistics are gathered throughout the country that help to give some sort of indication into the most popular sports that are being watched by the public. 

The Blast came seventh in the rankings, up from 21^st in 2016. For some further context, the Blast finished above the likes of the FA Cup, the British Grand Prix, the Boat Race and even England Test cricket.

So, with a seemingly upward trajectory in terms of sheer popularity, is this the right time to announce such a change? Or indeed, are the ECB simply hopping onto the bandwagon with regards to the soaring numbers?

“Well I have to say, it's a lot of money that's going to be thrown at something that is by no means guaranteed of any success,” says Agnew. “It's going to be a real challenge, I think, for the board to make this new tournament relevant in that there's the Blast going at the moment that actually is doing pretty well.

“The sales this year are up on last, it's based on what we traditionally have in this country which is county cricket, 18 counties, and it's based on that so there's no question people having to discover new loyalties, which is one of my issues with this new one.”

Changes afoot

2017 has seen The County Championship, t20 Blast and Royal London One Day Cup all have changes made to each, with the Championship arguably undergoing the most considerable change to its schedule. For the first time since 2000, the two divisions of nine teams were broken up and replaced by two divisions of eight and ten. Those changes now see a reduction in the total games played, from 16 to 14. This has, in turn, led to changes in the overall schedule for counties during the season. 

The 50 over competition will be played in a block, with the group stage beginning at the end of April and running continuously through to the middle of May. This will see all eight group games being played over the course of a frenetic two and a half weeks, with cricket available once every few days.

The same, or at least similar, premise has been applied to the t20 Blast. 

Like the RLODC, the Blast will be played in a solid block of fast-paced fixtures. 14 group games will be played in a six week window starting towards the start of July through to the middle of August. 

And, as a county pro, Trego is well aware of the changes and the route that the alterations to the schedule are taking the county game.

“It's been an interesting few years with the changes in structure,” says Trego. “We’ve obviously dropped two first class games from our fixtures to accommodate the other tournaments, in particular Twenty20 and having that in a block. Over the last few years we've been quite affected by the desire to get the more appealing Twenty20 competition to the fore and there's no doubt as a player that when you watch the Big Bash, the IPL… all those type of competitions that are in a block, they do look like magnificent competitions.

“Australia in particular, the way someone can play for South Australia one week and fly across and play for the Melbourne Renegades the next is quite an unusual thing. So if you obviously flip that to what it would be like in English cricket, if you're playing for Somerset one week then potentially playing for a Birmingham franchise or whatever - it's unchartered waters for us.”

Again, the continued rise of domestic Twenty20 is something that has raised further eyebrows with regards to the timing of the proposals for a new competition. And it is something that, like Agnew, Trego feels is perhaps a factor to at least consider when speaking about the planned tournament.

“I think Twenty20 is on the rise just because the product is very good. There are a lot of very good cricketers in England who aren't playing internationally and who put on a very good show. The grounds have done a lot but on relatively tight budgets. One thing I would say against spending all this money and going out and doing various things for this new competition, is why not invest some of that money in what we've already got and make it bigger and better.”

That sentiment is a common theme shared in many discussions regarding the essential demotion of the Blast to make room for the new competition. 

County rivalries

Another common debate among the county cricket community is that of established rivalries. What will happen to them once this new tournament is in full swing? There would potentially be a chance that a number of the cities that would be included would be made up of some sort of merger between rival counties.

“Leicestershire people traditionally view Nottingham as great rivals in everything, not just football, cricket and rugby, but just in terms of the next biggest city to Leicester,” says Agnew. “Why would they go there and support a team from there which might not have any of their own players in? There are issues there that I think are going to be difficult for the board to overcome.

“Here I am in Leicestershire, we're told that Test cricket will be going on at the same time, county cricket will be going on at the same time as this new tournament. I've got a family here who love their cricket and have supported Leicestershire for years, why would they choose to go and watch this team in Nottingham 20 odd miles up the road, rather than their usual Leicestershire team just because that team happens to be playing in Nottingham? I mean who are these people who are paying for it, why should they go to Nottingham?

“I asked Tom Harrison the other day, the Chief Executive, that very question. Why would that family go and watch Nottingham play rather than their team at Leicester? He said ‘because it's going to be box office’… didn't need to explain what that meant. But if it's louder music or bigger fireworks then I don't think that's going to be the answer."

Trego is typically not the sort of cricketer to mince his words, and he was similarly damning in his views on the ECB and their vision for the short and long term of English domestic T20. Harrison’s comments regarding the new competition when speaking to the BBC, saying that the proposed new tournament is “future-proofing English cricket and that it is “not a gamble”, was something that the 34-year-old cannot get on board with.

“I don't agree with a lot of things that the ECB throw up, to be honest,” scoffed Trego. “A lot of the things that are said are to pacify people in my opinion. To say that it's not a gamble, something that's never been done before, is just nonsensical really - of course it's a gamble.

“I'm sure it's an educated risk, but I don't think the word gamble is really appropriate with a cricket competition, really. There have been many things that the ECB have done that haven't come off so that doesn't have any sort of credibility for me, really. As a player who, like I said, has played nearly 20 years - who knows?

“Are the die-hard cricket supporters going to want to watch Birmingham and not Warwickshire or watch Bristol and not Gloucestershire? Who knows, for me there is obviously risk attached to it but like I said with the numbers that are being thrown around, commercially/sponsorship wise, I'm sure it'll bring in a whole heap of revenue so I suppose from that perspective it isn't a gamble, for lack of a better word.”

The proposed format

The proposed format of the new city-based tournament will seemingly draw from parts of the IPL and parts of the BBL. Like the Big Bash, the English version will likely see each team play each other once with an extra round of group games added in. In terms of its likelihood to the IPL, the plans for the tournament structure will include a play-off system that is employed in the IPL.

The system used gives added incentives to finish as high as possible, with the loser of the first qualifier between first and second getting another bite at the cherry by playing the winner of the eliminator between third and fourth for a place in the Final.

There is also a split in between the BBL and IPL in terms of the numbers of overseas players, with three permitted in the new English competition. Although it has not been confirmed it is likely that each team will be able to field their three overseas players, with two and four permitted in the BBL and IPL respectively, something Trego is happy to see.

“Yeah, I'd have thought you'd want it to be as elite as possible. The last thing you want to do is have a watered-down version of a new competition. It has to be, you know, half the amount of teams. So you’re looking at, just on sheer maths, five of the best players from each county, 18 counties, and 8 teams.

“You know, you cut everything in half so you are, in theory, picking up the best players from each team and I'm sure every county has at least five world-class players in their line-up - so you'd think that would be a pretty strong competition.”

The rest of the squads will be made up of 96 of the best English talent available. Available is the key word here, as it is understood that the English Test players will not be around to be able to play in what could likely be the centrepiece of the cricketing summer. It is one of the big reasons as to why the IPL has been, and likely will continue to be, so successful. Players such as Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Ravi Ashwin and even Sachin Tendulkar have all been regular members of IPL teams, with Dhoni being one of the most-capped IPL players.

Having every single international player available to play in your own tournament is a dream and one that makes the IPL such a spectacle, but it is by no means the be all and end all. The Big Bash is regularly robbed of its best talents because of international scheduling, with the likes of David Warner, Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc only making fleeing appearances since the tournament’s induction in 2011.

“I think it's a great shame that England's home-grown Test players won't be playing, not just because obviously that makes it more box office, but because they need to play,” argues Agnew.

“There are some players who do play all the formats and so they need to be playing, you'd have thought, in our supposed premier competition. I know the Australians don't, and I accept that, but I think if it was going to be the perfect tournament then you'd have our leading players playing in it too.

“But yeah, it is in their interest I would think to get overseas players playing and beef it up and have recognisable names - I think that's good. See they could do that with the Blast - but they won't. I mean the fact is this is coming in and the Blast is going to be running alongside it.

“So given the fact that it is coming, and I've sort of laid out what my concerns are and I think given that we're going to get it, I think that probably the format is right and I think three overseas players is right.”

Lacking its stars?

It is well-documented that England players are generally ghosts when it comes to playing county cricket, with Yorkshire head coach Andrew Gale recently hitting out at the ECB over their decision to rest Jonny Bairstow and make him unavailable to his side. Bairstow had not played since the middle of December during England’s tour of India and was even made available for the IPL draft in February.

And Agnew fully understands the stance of Gale and his contemporaries when it comes to the selection of England players for county cricket.

“I think it will always struggle but this is county cricket. It fails to reach its full potential without them but that's the issue, really. County cricket basically, above one or two early games, doesn't feature any of our top players at all.

“I think, actually, the members have done very well in supporting the counties despite that. I mean, I remember playing for Leicestershire in the 80s and David Gower, Peter Willey and these people weren't playing.

“It didn't feel second rate, but you were aware that your best players weren't there. But that's what county cricket is like all the time now and somehow they've managed to... I mean the county members have been very loyal.

“I think if you are designing the perfect, ground-breaking, all-singing all-dancing, box office tournament then I think one of the first criteria is having your best players in it.”

All to play for in the Blast

In what is a fairly unique and innovative approach, the squads made up during the draft will leave two spaces in the squad per team. The reason behind this is to allow players who will be performing in the Blast beforehand to be given a chance to get their name out and compete for a space in a side participating in the new tournament.

Once the Blast reaches its climax, 16 players will be additionally picked, alongside the 104 that would have already been picked up in the draft. And Trego feels that it will be something that will help to drive his fellow professionals on to achieve even more in the Blast than before.

“Yeah, it sounds like a logical thing to do. Every game will be a shop window to get a big contract so obviously the reality is that the players are going to know when they step foot on the pitch for the T20 Blast that they can net themselves quite a lucrative contract for one of these franchises. So I'm sure, again, that it'll add a bit more potency to the competition and certainly drive the players on.”

Agnew, meanwhile, also hailed the idea. The former Leicestershire man suggested that the motivation for county cricketers is not quite the same as it had been in his player career, citing the lack of genuine, realistic incentives as one of the reasons. 

But with the opportunity to play in the first tournament of its kind in England up for grabs for the rest of the county circuit not selected in the initial draft, there is suddenly a huge enticement for those playing in what could be seen as a lower-quality, little brother to the city-based competition that would take place soon after.

“Again it's a good incentive. I think within county cricket, unfortunately the way it’s structured now with the central contracts and the almost determination not to drop people from the England side, especially batsmen, there's a lot of incentive missing [from county cricket],” states Agnew.

“That incentive was there when I was there, you knew if you had a good couple of games you had a chance of playing for England and that was a real incentive. I mean it really was an incentive, it was there in your mind all the time and it was realistic.

“You could argue they picked too many people in the 80s and you were discarded too quickly - and you were. You didn't get much of a chance. But to counter that, you knew on a wet and windy Friday afternoon in Cardiff that if you ran in and got a load of wickets with England having lost a Test match the week before you had a chance of being picked and that was fantastic. So this will hopefully be an added incentive for county cricketers to move up a notch - that's a good thing.”

Is there such thing as too much T20?

One of Agnew’s further concerns for a new tournament is the sheer amount of Twenty20 cricket being played all around the world, all year round. Will there still be the same appetite for it in three years’ time? Will it have gone from strength to strength, with the new competition in fact becoming a springboard for an even bigger T20 audience worldwide?

“Well, I don't know,” says Agnew. “Part of the question is whether or not people have had enough of T20 cricket by the time this new one comes around, or whether it's used as a build up to get people going.

“I mean my own view of T20 is that I really enjoy it, I don't mind watching T20 cricket at all, but it's a very fleeting experience. There are very few games, I mean take the World T20 last year… there's two games a day and you're rattling through it, I mean they're best teams in the world after all but it's only two days later that you've forgotten what you've seen two days before.

“They're an instant thrill and that's good and you want that, there's nothing wrong with that. But I generally leave these tournaments having seen enough of it because that sort of longer-lasting satisfaction that you get through watching Test cricket or the longer form of the game, I think I can remember most Test matches or something about most test matches that I've watched.

“But crikey - there's very little about T20 games that I can remember.”

It might not be all the way up Agnew’s street, but T20 is seemingly on the rise. The YouGov statistics mentioned earlier, for example, are one indication and if those sorts of numbers keep rising, at whatever pace, then the stage will potentially be perfectly set to welcome the new blockbuster tournament in 2020.

The future

But as for Trego, the timing of the new tournament may be a bit too late for him to pick up a contract. A player who would likely would have been a shoe-in for a place in one of the squads had the plans already been in place, Trego is comfortable with what he has achieved and is simply looking forward to what the competition may throw up in regards to the future of English cricket.

“I'm 35 now, when that competition's running I will be 38/39 so I would imagine that it won't impact my life or career a great deal, but it's not about that. It's about me being able to go to Taunton when I'm retired and watch good quality cricket and be remembered somewhere down the line for playing a game that's still very popular and that's motivation for many cricketers to make sure that cricket is on the rise.

“It will be important to them because they're the guys that are going to get the biggest paydays and knowing most sports people those sorts of figures are probably not going to be sniffed at, so I'm sure they're going to be very motivated to play.

“Like I said, that does take the performance of the people at the ECB and the top level, they're the ones tasked with that.”

One thing is for sure, though, and that is the fact that England will be seeing a new domestic T20 tournament in three years’ time. It has been a long time coming, but this vote has seen everything come sharply into focus. The ECB now hold all the power, and it will be up to them to produce a tournament that can compete with the highly-regarded IPL and BBL.

It may still be a fair way off, but the wheels are now in motion and it will be fascinating to see how the proposals pan out over the next 36 or so months as we move towards the long-awaited evolution within the English game.