England ditch plans for second T20 event

Next season's English county cricket programme will feature just one Twenty20 competition after officials confirmed Thursday that plans for a second Twenty20 event had been scrapped.

Instead the season will feature the four-day County Championship tournament, the P20 event and a revamped Sunday League one-day competition.

The traditional 40-over Sunday League was a popular tournament throughout the 1970s and 1980s but has suffered in recent years from being shunted around the fixture programme.

Officials have yet to determine the exact length of the new Sunday League. But anything less than a 50-overs per side tournament would mean English county players were not taking part in a format that remains a staple of the international programme.

ECB chairman Giles Clarke said: "We canvassed a wide range of opinion and everyone was behind the principle of the primacy of Test match and County Championship cricket.

"It is important that the County Championship structure is maintained to support the England Test team.

"We all recognise that there is little appetite for Test match cricket in early May and this structure allows us to play Tests in June, July and August.

"We have also listened to the spectators and counties alike about the structure and the consensus was for Twenty20 cricket to be played in June and July with a final later in the season with the qualification matches primarily at weekends."

The new P20 tournament will be split into a north and south pool, with exact playing regulations yet to be decided.

The rise of Twenty20, while viewed in some quarters as a threat to the long-term future of Test cricket, has more immediately led to widespread questioning of the 50-over game, now branded 'neither one thing nor the other' by a number of critics.

And the board's statement admitted: "The ECB feel there is a worldwide desire to find a way of reinvigorating and revitalising the 50 over game.

"The game has experimented with power plays and super subs and now ECB, along with other countries, have decided to explore new options.

"One option being considered is a 40 over concept with two innings per side with no limitations on bowlers."

However, the statement insisted the new schedule did not endanger the chances of England, who have never won a major international limited overs competition, triumphing at the 2011 World Cup in Asia.

"The ECB is committed to 50-over cricket at international level with a total of 13 ODIs (one-day internationals) against Bangladesh, Australia and Pakistan as well as an extended programme of England Lions 50-over games.

"These matches, along with those played in Australia in the (nothern hemisphere) winter of 2010/11, will provide the practice required for the ICC World Cup in early 2011."