Cricket Australia to develop T20 domestic league
Cricket Australia plans to build a bigger KFC Big Bash Twenty20 interstate competition as its next step in the development of the popular twenty-over format.
CA Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland said the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) tournament in October will take the fast growing T20 concept the next logical step after the success of the first two years of IPL cricket.
"The RTA SpeedBlitz Blues and Victorian Bushrangers sides which contested the final of last summer's Australian KFC Big Bash will take on the best of the best from around the world, including IPL sides Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore, when the CLT20 competition is inaugurated in three months from now," he said.
"The global context of CLT20 is what sets it apart. My own view is that CLT20 could eventually be even bigger than the IPL, if that is possible to contemplate and we need to look at ways of strengthening our own interstate T20 contest to ensure our states are able to do everything they need to do to develop world-class sides capable of winning what is effectively the world title for club cricket."
"There are provisions in our new Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Cricketers' Association which, in conjunction with $50,000 allowances for Australian state cricket associations to recruit international T20 stars, will help the state sides further improve the already impressive playing standards we see in KFC T20 cricket".
Mr Sutherland said he had commissioned an internal Australian cricket study to look at what else can be done to turn the KFC Big Bash into an even Bigger Bash.
This will now take priority over what had been proposed to be a joint Australia-South Africa-New Zealand Southern Premier League (SPL) competition which would have its winners feed into the CLT20 competition.
"SPL remains on our radar screen but it is now a longer term proposal," Mr Sutherland said.
"It has become increasingly clear that the emerging Future Tours Program details for beyond 2012, when the current ICC FTP period ends, make it difficult to see a clear window for a tri-nations SPL club cricket concept".
He said that Australia, South Africa and New Zealand cricket discussions in London last week when world cricket leaders met for a series of ICC meetings had led the three SPL partners to this conclusion.
"While in London, I had the chance to see the ICC World Twenty20 men's and women's finals and the success of that tournament only further convinces me of the entertainment potential of this format and of its potential to create new markets for cricket in non-traditional cricket regions such as the USA, China and Japan," he said.
While the detail of the post 2012 FTP will not be finalised for some time, the emerging detail has led to a CA decision to focus on building of its interstate KFC T20 competition as the next Australian T20 development.
KFC Big Bash details for 2009-10 will be announced in the next week or so when the full interstate cricket program is finalised and that competition will look similar to the existing competition which has helped bring big crowds averaging over 10,000 fans per game back to state cricket and attract large audiences to the FoxSports telecast in the last three summers.
The new review has been charged with coming up with a "Bigger Bash" concept that might be played from as early as the Ashes summer of 2010-11.
Mr Sutherland said he had no preconceptions on what a "Bigger Bash" might look like but hoped details could be discussed with Australian cricket and put to the CA board for its consideration later this calendar year.