Plan for Twenty20 'Champions League' worries authorities

A report in today's Times newspaper claims that two new competitions are being planned to cash in on the success of Twenty20 cricket.

The first, launched tomorrow by a group called the Get Fit Foundation (GFF), heralds itself as the "first-ever 20-20 World Cricket Classic." While the publicity might be impressive, cursory investigation indicates that while GFF trumpets that the "world's greatest cricketers" will be on show, it is in fact an over-35s tournament and will feature players of yesteryear rather than any current ones. The event, in Bermuda next May, came about as a result of the successful over-35s rugby tournament held on the island.

The other competition, run by Investors in Cricket (IC), the group of businessmen who now have a large stake in Leicestershire, is more relevant and will be of far greater concern to those running the game.

The IC plan centres on an end-of-season international competition in September, involving the leading Twenty20 club sides from around the world. With the format likely to feature in most domestic programmes within the next year - it has already been a huge success in England, South Africa and Pakistan - this competition could soon become an unofficial Champions League of domestic cricket.

Twenty20 lends itself to such a format. It would take no more than three or four days for the entire event to take place, with as many as three games a day, and it would be perfect for television. It is unlikely that IC would consider staging anything on this scale without TV backing, and given the group's Asian orientation, the target market would seem to be India and Pakistan. And as a private competition, it would also fall outside any existing media deals.

Until all other countries embrace Twenty20, the teams would probably initially come from England and South Africa, with guest sides from Asia and the rest of the world making up the numbers and increasing the appeal. But as the concept spreads, the logical conclusion is that the domestic champions from all the major countries could take part.

The ECB are hardly likely to welcome the venture with open arms, and sources indicate that it will not allow any of its centrally-contracted players to play. But as it does not involve either England or any other national teams, and is effectively a private county-run event, there would seem to be little the ECB could do to prevent it being staged.