The Natwest Pro40 league is being scrapped in favour of a revamped T20 tournament, the English Premier League.

Question

The Natwest Pro40 league, widely derided because it causes fixture congestion in the English domestic season and because there are no international equivalent of the 40 over format, will be scrapped after the 2009 edition to make way for a English Premier League T20 tournament. Firstly, do you agree that scrapping the Pro40 is a good idea, and secondly, is replacing it with T20 a step in the right direction, or would you favour more 50 overs and 4-day first class matches instead?

Also, does this signal that the possibility of revamping the 50 over game to a 40 over a side format is out of the equation in the minds of cricket administrators worldwide? Would you have preferred to see the 50 over format restructured to 40 overs, while limiting the number of T20 matches? If so, do you feel that scrapping of the Pro40 was not a good idea?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_League_(cricket)

Answer 1

The Natwest Pro 40 league was an awful idea from start to finish. Please can you tell me how playing 40 over cricket makes sense? 40 over cricket is completly different from 50 over cricket, players have to plan there innings differently, the only similarity is that in the last 8 overs its all guns blazing. No other cricketing nations have a 40 over league, so why in the world did England create one? If it was created so that it could slot in at a good time in the afternoon, then that is ludicrious. The ECB shouldnt be worried, about what times fans can come and watch, they should be focused on building a winning England side. If the quaility of the cricket is good then fans will come regardless of the time.

This change will actually help with the fixture congestion, the EPL will start and end in june, no other games (England or domestic) will be played in June, so the EPL will use the whole month of June.

This will mean that after June, the only 2 domestic competitions left will be the County Championship and the Twenty20 comepetition. Now playing a 3 hour Twenty20 match every Friday and Saturday for 2 months shouldnt be too tiring. So i do believe that the players wont be too tired compared to this year, especially because the Twenty20 competition means so much compared with the Pro40.

My quick thoughts on the EPL are that its completly pointless and that we should have either a 50 over league OR no competition there at all. Twenty20 is already unbelievably popular in England so there is no need to create a rival tournament, which has half of the funds of the IPL and less star power. The EPL has potential to kill Twenty20

Answer 2

scrapping pro40 is not good idea  

Answer 3

I thought the 40 over competition was a good one when it was the old Sunday League. It fitted in nicely to a Sunday afternoon and early evening, with matches starting at 2, and finishing about 7.

Replacing it with another Twenty 20 competition is utter folly on the part of the ECB. It will over saturate the market, and the 'product' will suffer as a result. It all seems to be about making money.

If it is because of fixture congestion, why replace it with another competition at all, albeit in a different format?

They should have three competitions in England: The first class competition as it is now, the Twenty 20 Cup as it is now, and a 50 over league.

This would give players time to prepare better for games.