D-Day for counties fighting Twenty20 plan

ENGLISH cricket’s powerbrokers will put their reputations on the line today as they try to convince doubtful counties to back a citybased Twenty20 Super League. The ECB’s big two in chief executive Tom Harrison and chairman Colin Graves have staked their futures on introducing an eight-team city competition based at Test grounds — a showpiece to rival Australia’s Big Bash. Yet they will approach today’s pivotal meeting with county chairmen and chief executives knowing their ambitious project is facing considerable opposition from counties in danger of being frozen out. It has led to a civil war in domestic cricket, with accusations of bullying from counties furious that they have been stopped from discussing the revolutionary proposals with their members. Surrey, England’s richest and most powerful county, are strongly opposed to the plans and want to see a revamped English Premier League involving all 18 counties in two divisions, with promotion and relegation. It was an interview with Surrey chairman Richard Thompson in

Sportsmail that led to the ECB implementing non-disclosure agreements on counties, even though the ECB’s side of the argument has appeared elsewhere. Now Graves and Harrison are putting their faith in sweeteners of around £1.5million for each county to force through the competition in time for 2018, even though the current broadcasting deal expires a year later. Five options will be on the table today but realistically only two will be considered, with a final decision expected next month. Then English cricket must decide whether to introduce the city event while keeping what would become a secondary competition involving all 18 counties, or revamping the 18-county competition and shelving plans to have London, Manchester and Birmingham teams. The logistical problems are immense for the ECB, who will face questions today on whether it will be possible for England players to feature in the new competition, planned for mid-summer, and whether the County Championship will be compromised by the absence of leading players while Twenty20 cities take centre stage. Another significant hurdle is that even if the city competition is approved, Surrey and Yorkshire, based at two of the probable host venues in The Oval and Headingley respectively, would want to compete with their identities intact rather than as south London and Leeds. So far Graves’s chairmanship has been notable more for verbal gaffes than tangible achievement, notably when he called West Indies ‘mediocre’ ahead of England’s tour there last year and used the same word to describe the current Blast on the eve of this year’s competition. He also made life hard for new England team director Andrew Strauss by publicly giving encouragement to Kevin Pietersen over a possible England recall when there was never any intention of having him back. Now Graves and Harrison must win this increasingly hostile ‘war’ or it is hard to see how they can stay in office.