Do we need a T20 International Cricket League?
The biggest challenge that T20 Internationals faces is losing relevance and being overshadowed by the domestic T20 leagues like the IPL and Big Bash. The only way to make each T20 International relevant, so that they don't get upstaged by the domestic leagues, is to create a T20 International league.
Here is how the T20I league should work.
First, only players under 25 years of age should be allowed to play. Move over Virat Kohli, AB, Joe Root. We're going to be using the T20 league as a platform for young talent.
Why? Allowing only players below 25 years of age is going to do two things.
- It allows the fans to see young, fresh and exciting talent.
- We don't want a situation of overworked players. The older and more experienced cricketers can focus on Test and one-day cricket thereby avoiding burn out. Each team is already playing 30 ODIs a year.
Now the structure of the league.
The T20I league should have three divisions comprising of eight teams each. Each team plays the other once in a round robin format. So each team plays seven games. The team with the most wins in the league is the winner of the league.
The bottom two teams get relegated to a lower division the next year.
Each team plays just seven T20 games in the league thereby reducing the possibility of an overdose of T20 cricket.
The entire league can be played in one country while rotating venues every year.
The ICC can also consider scrapping the T20 World Cup. I know the T20 World Cup had some great viewership but why to confuse viewers with another World Cup format. Instead, let's just have one World Cup (the 50 over format), and stick to a T20 International league.
It'll be Interesting to see ICC's take on this suggestion. Let us know your views in the comments section below.
