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Twenty20 cricket
Australia, SA and NZ plan tri-nation Twenty20 league
Nagraj Gollapudi
January 15, 2009
Players' representatives from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have begun talks on an IPL-style tri-nation Twenty20 league that will involve franchises from the three countries and begin from 2011.
Discussions between the representatives are being held in Australia on the sidelines of the ongoing series between South Africa and Australia, and are being seen as a significant step forward towards the formation of the league, which would follow the IPL, the Champions League and the ECB's proposed EPL.
"We can certainly confirm that we have been in discussions with the boards from Australia and South Africa and we are working towards the launch of the league in 2011," Justin Vaughan, chief executive of New Zealand Cricket (NZC), told Cricinfo. "But we are not at any stage to release details of that."
Vaughan said the three national boards hope that players from around the world would be able to participate in the league. "But it is probably too early to speculate on individuals," he said.
Discussions are still at an early stage but the tri-nation league may have three teams each from Australia and South Africa, and two from New Zealand. The collaboration among the three boards is understood to have been borne out of the realisation that it would be difficult for one country to sustain a league on the lines of the IPL, which is being run by the cash-rich BCCI. "The three boards thought there was benefit in collaborating," Vaughan said.
Officials from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had begun discussions to join hands for an annual tri-nation tournament on the sidelines of the ICC annual conference in Dubai last year. Various models were discussed and subsequently it was felt that the best way forward was to adopt a franchise-based model that combined teams from the three countries.
It was originally expected that the tournament would commence from 2009, but a packed ICC calendar, including the postponed Champions Trophy, and commercial considerations have led to 2011 being agreed upon for the launch. The ICC's current Future Tours Programme (FTP) runs from 2006-2012, and subsequent arrangements are being negotiated by the various national boards.
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo
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is another Twenty20 league a good idea or is there now too much of the format?
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Enough of 20/20 tournaments and leagues. As you guys may have noticed, the injuries that hit the Australian team this summer happened to those who played in IPL. Who were the only 2 who didnt and had great summers? Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson. The players need rest. They are not horses to be continually flogged. I suggest at 2 months of no cricket to allow the players to recuperate so they can play cricket at their highest level!!
Posted by cricket4shafiq on (January 16 2009, 07:35 AM GMT)Well Said, Blackcapsrule! A 2 month window is a fantastic idea, with having occasional T20 spice when teams have international tours, like 3Tests, 3ODIs & 3T20. How on earth International cricket fans can ignore Pakistan & Westindies----the true talent to bring cricket what it is today. I believe Pakistan cricket still has capability ti atleast T20 & ODIs victories consistetly agaisnt any team of the world. Our players performing in IPL, Australia, England, South Africa are examples of it.
Posted by blackcapsrule on (January 15 2009, 18:57 PM GMT)What is better off being done is a complete reconstructuring of the cricket calendar. Somewhere, there needs to be a 20/20 window, maybe 2 months, in which everyone runs their 20/20 leagues. There will be the EPL, IPL (a revised format to include the whole subcontinent), SHPL (southern hemisphere premier league), and Stanford League. In this two month window the leagues will run their competition and a certain amount of teams will be 'champions league' eligible. In the last 2 weeks of this 8 week window the champions league will be run, to find the years overall champion. By the way, i think it should be a fully professional style anyone can play anywhere. Meanwhile the other 10 months of the year are international cricket. The only problem is finding 2 months where the weather is good enough that the 20/20 can be run, which i think can happen, but only if NZ teams don't play at home, our weather is never good at the same time as england. play SHPL purely in Australia and SA maybe.
Posted by klempie on (January 15 2009, 18:48 PM GMT)It's a great idea. SA, Aus and NZ are all quite similar in terms of sporting culture and in some sense I suppose we all see each other as cousins in some senses. SANZAR, which is the governing body of SA, NZ and Aus rugby have created the best international and domestic franchise rugby competitions, the Trinations and Super 14, in the world and the fact that they perenially occupy 3 of the top 5 positions in the world attests to this fact. If cricket could form a similar body and organise an international franchise competition coupled with an annual or biannual Trinations tournament I think it would breath life into the domestic level. The only problem with it is 20/20. I can't stand the format. Make them ODI tournaments and I'm there.
Posted by ChinmayD on (January 15 2009, 16:48 PM GMT)I would rather have a larger T20 tournament contested between franchises from India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand of 16 teams (8 from India, 3 each from South Africa and Australia and 2 from New Zealand) replacing the IPL. Such a tournament would replace both IPL as well as Champions League T20, thus reducing the amount of windows needing to be created. Playing such a tournament might not be a big problem at all since the domestic seasons of India, Australia, SA and NZ coincide (you could have a nice window in February-March-April period), when cricket can be played in all the countries. Further franchises from Sri Lanka or Pakistan may be inducted as and when necessary.
Posted by Faiz24 on (January 15 2009, 16:33 PM GMT)There is so much of 20-20 now that i doubt a new league without many international stars would click to the spectators.
Posted by Naren on (January 15 2009, 15:57 PM GMT)I think if the retired greats like Mcgrath, Warne, Hayden, Gilchrist participate there will definitely be a crowd for that. Atleast it will be successful the first year for sure.
Posted by blackerthanyourhate on (January 15 2009, 15:48 PM GMT)T20 Tournaments is the most preffered choice to make money for top corporates be it for the Texan billionare Allen Stanford who took the ninitiative for T20,or characters like lalit Modi who founded the IPL in India.Now all T20 tournaments dont necessarily have to be as big, or snazzy as the IPL..Everyone likes the high voltage atmosphere of a t20 tournament and if Australia, South Africa and New Zealand comes up with something to make quick money out of a tournament i dont think there is any harm..Test Cricket will always have its popularity among honest cricket fans who dont hold excuse for the "time factor" blaming it to be a lengthy version of the game..After all its the purest version of cricket and there is no replacement where both the batsman,bowlers and the fielders are needed to perform to come up with a positive result.Test Cricket will still continue to be the challenging version of the game where as t20 will be only used as something to make quick money out of it..
Posted by hermithead on (January 15 2009, 13:21 PM GMT)Abhithen we've just had Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir play in our Big bash competition so yes we can attract players like the IPL. It obviously won't be as popular as the IPL with India's many spectators to compete with but sporting rivalries between Aus, NZ, SA run deep between these countries thanks to rugby. It may not pull crowds of 57,000 per match but even if it averages 10-20,000 per match that would be considered successful for these countries as the populations are tiny in comparison to India.
Posted by sslapper on (January 15 2009, 13:20 PM GMT)I think it could be successul...not as big as the IPL obviously, but with or without other international players, it would prove to big a money-spinner for the respective boards. But it's another example to add to an overflowing file of evidence, that Twenty20 is going to start dominating the cricket calendar, and putting the squeeze on test cricket. That...is a sad thought for me and other lovers of test cricket