The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced the team cities for their proposed T20 league. After the huge success of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Big Bash League (BBL), and many other T20 leagues around the world, the ECB considered it to be a high time for their own native T20 league to get underway.

Currently, the T20 competition in England is the NatWest T20 Blast. However, in order to provide a platform to the aspiring cricketers, and also in a bid to generate better revenues, ECB is keen on starting a T20 league which will run on the lines of the IPL. As per the plans, the ECB has shortlisted the year of 2020 to be the year when the first edition of this T20 league will see its inaugural edition.

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For now, as per the recent reports in Inside Sport, the ECB has named the 8 franchise cities for the tournament. The cities that will have the franchises based on them are London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cardiff and Southampton. London will have two separate franchisees for the Lord’s and the Oval.

Moreover, Ageas Bowl, Edgbaston, Headingley, Old Trafford, the Swalec Stadium and Trent Bridge having been picked as other venues to host the matches, English media has reported. Reportedly, the tournament will have 8 franchises which will compete with one for a period of 38 days. 36 matches will be played in the English summer. There will be four home matches for every franchise.

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Also, the board is trying to make sure that the telecast of the tournament will be a pocket-friendly one and the fans across the globe will be witnessing some exciting brand of cricket. The ECB last year has inked five-year (2020-2024) deal with the national broadcaster BBC for live coverage of the league on its FTA network. Sky Sports will be the other broadcaster.

While the plan sounds very exciting from the perspective, it is worth noting that a similar plan of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) could never really see the day light despite the majority of the planning been done.