County Cricket T20 Franchises

Australia's Big Bash and the Indian Premier League have showed how successful domestic Twenty20 (T20) can be. 

This year's Big Bash was around a month in duration and was a great build up to the Cricket World Cup held in the same country. It's success was a combination of star players, franchise teams, innovative & laid-back broadcasting, and attacking cricket. Many of these qualities were shared with the original Twenty20 Cup launched in England back in 2003. However, the England Cricket Board (ECB) cooked the golden goose by dragging the tournament out and the sense of fun went out of the English domestic T20 game. 

T20 has made a huge impact on the One Day and Test Match format over the past five years. Average run-rates in the first 10 overs have jumped by three runs since the last World Cup in 2011 from 7 to 10 runs an over.

Every international team apart from England has embraced this attacking and pro-active form of cricket.

The ECB needs to learn why the Big Bash was so successful and has to bring in franchise domestic teams in order to catch up with the rest of the world.

The format should be as follows:

Six franchises each made out of three regional counties. Two teams based in LONDON, one made up of Surrey, Essex and Kent and the other made up of Middlesex, Sussex and Hampshire. WEST made up of Lancashire, Somerset and Glamorgan. WEST MIDLANDS of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. EAST MIDLANDS of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. NORTH of Yorkshire, Durham and Derbyshire.

Home matches would be played at the traditional test venues of each franchise, and the teams would be made up of three of the best players from each county, plus two overseas 'Star' players. 

The tournament would last around a month in the middle of the summer between the two Test Series.

This would bring some much needed impetuous into the domestic game and would go towards assisting England in playing attractive and attacking cricket.