England board opposed to Saudi-backed T20 league idea

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Richard Gould said they would not support a proposed global Twenty20 league bankrolled by Saudi Arabia as there was not enough room in the calendar for it.

A Sydney Morning Herald report on Saturday said the T20 event would be backed by the sports arm of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and feature eight teams playing in four different locations.

“With the busy international calendar, a host of established franchise leagues around the world, and existing concerns about player workloads, there is no scope or demand for such an idea,” Gould told the same newspaper.

“It’s not something that we would support,” the ECB chief added.

The league, dubbed the ‘Grand Slam Of Cricket’, will follow a tennis Grand Slam format, featuring teams assembling four times a year in different countries.

The brainchild of Neil Maxwell, a former Australian cricketer, the league aims to generate a new revenue stream to support weaker cricket boards and preserve Test cricket. The Australian Cricketers’ Association has proposed the idea, with SRJ Sports Investments, headed by Danny Townsend, set to be the primary investor.

The ECB is keen to protect its own 100-ball format league, The Hundred, having raised $1.27 billion last month after selling franchise stakes to private investors.

The Indian Premier League remains the benchmark in franchise cricket, while Australia, Pakistan, West Indies, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates also have their own T20 leagues.

The Australian Cricketers Association has backed Saudi Arabia’s proposed league saying it was mandated to “pursue initiatives that benefit our members”.

“The ACA’s early interest in exploring this concept is motivated by a desire to develop and normalise best-practice collective bargaining and an international gender-equity pay model for male and female cricketers,” the player’s union was quoted as saying in the report.