Australian board to decide on IPL-like model for T20 tournament
Cricket http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 will meet on Friday to decide whether they need to bring in an Indian Premier League-like format to their domestic T20 structure for the 2011-12 season. Currently, the domestic T20 tournament,
also called the KFC Big Bash T20, has the six state sides compete against each other, but there are plans to allow private players to own city-based clubs in a bid to bring in more money into the game.
According to news report, the new format will have eight city-based teams – much like the IPL – and the Australian board needs to discuss how the ownership structure for the sides will work. There will be
a presentation at CA’s annual general meeting on Thursday which will be followed by the meeting on Friday where this decision will be taken.
A Cricket Australia spokesperson said: "There has been interest from private investors in being involved. All of that is a matter for board determination, but it will be a big discussion."
There have also been reports in
The Australian that the state sides of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-South-Wales-c823 have been approached by entities who want to invest in the newly formed city-based clubs. The eight teams could include a city from each of the six states and two from the development
areas.
Earlier, the Cricket Australia had decided to have a city-based model without having any external stake from investors to begin with. However, after the interest shown by investors, the board has had to meet
to decide and take a decision on the same.
Earlier, Mike McKenna, Cricket Australia's general manager of marketing, had said, "Sport in Australia is not full of great successes in private investment".
The IPL is a city-based franchise model where the eight owners had been afforded the right to own the franchise for a period of ten years in exchange for huge sums of money.
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