This is a new format that the English Cricket Board are getting behind and I just don't see the point. There are a few tweaks which have been incorporated to speed up the match which should last about 3 hours. I understand what they are trying to do and why they have support from the players in this. The players are being paid some decent money so they are smiling, hence the support.
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Two leagues of 8 teams. One for the men and one for the women.
Who would complain getting 125 000 pounds for 5 weeks work on top of your normal salaries, Not all players are getting that and some are on a meager 30 000 Pounds. That is still basically 1000 Pounds per day and you don't play every day so a good result for everyone involved.
I always thought the ECB was mighty jealous of the IPL and how much money it bought in. The English players were also restricted at times form participating in the Indian premier League which I thought was unfair. Personally I think it is a big mistake and they should have come up with something that was totally different and unique. I love Cricket and probably won't tune into watch it as it hasn't peaked my interest enough.
The idea is to bring in new supporters to the game creating more fans, mainly women and children and making it a family event which is correct in their thinking. I just don't see it doing it though and there were many other ways to make it more interesting than just by speeding up the game. The 20/20 format which is currently the shortest version of the game took off and now they want to reduce the amount of balls bowled by 20 (20 overs is 120). The overs will be 10 ball overs now compared to 6 so there is less change around time and it will speed the game up.
This version is not exciting enough and more should have been done I think with bonus score zones and some type of penalty for time wasting. A 20 over game could be completed in 3 hours if the players were pushed and there were penalties involved. Test cricket used to have an over rate of 15 overs per hour and now we are down to as low as 13 or even 12 in some cases. Mathematically 13 overs an hour gives you 20 overs in 90 minutes telling me a game could be completed in 3 hours.
This is down to the ECB looking to boost their revenue and it is all smoke and mirrors and I just don't see the excitement as a cricket fan. Maybe they should have included ladies into the team to really change things up and help bring their game forward. That would have definitely bought families in and been a bit more different.
