English cricket plans new 100 balls a side event
The England and Wales Cricket Board have proposed a 100-balls-a-side format for a new domestic competition that will start in 2020.
It had been thought that the eight team men’s and women’s competitions, due to involve city-based sides rather than the traditional 18 first-class counties, would have a standard 20-overs per side format.
But English men’s county cricket, which pioneered the 20-over game as a professional format, already has the Twenty20 Blast, while the Women’s Super League is also a 20 overs per side competition.
Instead, in a bid to make the new tournament “distinct”, the ECB has now opted for an unproven and briefer format that would, if adopted, differentiate the event from existing Twenty 20 franchise competitions such as the Indian Premier League and the Caribbean premier league, which both currently cut across the english season.
An ECB statement issued Thursday said the competitions would take place in a five-week block in the middle of the season.
Under the proposal, which has still to gain final approval, each team will face 15 standard six-ball overs with an additional 10-ball over at the end of the innings.
That would mean the tournament deviating from cricket’s Law 17.1 which clearly states: “The ball shall be bowled from each end alternately in overs of six balls.”