City cricket proposal goes to ballot

Plans for a new citybased Twenty20 tournament will hinge on the outcome of a postal ballot after England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Colin Graves triggered the referendum process. He took the much-anticipated step at a Lord’s meeting of the executive board yesterday, after it emerged the previous day that all 18 first-class counties and the MCC had signed up to a “media rights deed” which authorises the ECB to include on their behalf the proposal for the eight-team Twenty20 competition in the governing body’s portfolio to offer to prospective broadcasters this summer.