T10 League officials set to meet England and Wales Cricket Board about hosting T10 tournaments

Denzil Pinto 00:08 22/02/2018
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  • Eoin Morgan played in the first T10 League

    Organisers of the T10 League have confirmed they will meet England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) officials next month about the possibility of hosting tournaments of the shortest format in the future.

    The inaugural edition of the 10-overs-a-side competition in December proved to be a huge success with England ODI and T20 captain Eoin Morgan among the elite stars that played in front of more than 15,000 fans at Sharjah Stadium.

    Shaji Ul-Mulk, chairman of the T10 League, confirmed there is now interest from England’s governing body as well as their West Indies counterparts to stage their own tournaments overseas.

    “We are an initial stage of discussing with them,” said Ul-Mulk during Wednesday’s press conference at Dubai Marina. “We intend to have a meeting with them (ECB) in mid-March. The intention is to take T10 global.

    “To be working with a powerful cricket board like the England Cricket Board will be another feather in our cap. It will be an independent league. The Sharjah league will continue in its own format.

    “We also have discussions with West Indies board to take it to the US as well. The talks are in place.  Whether we will be doing it in 2018 or 2019 is down to the matter of discussions.”

    This year’s competition is set to be “two-and-a-half-times bigger” than 2017 when it returns in December. Not only has the tournament been extended from four to 10 days, there will be two more franchises with Ul-Mulk confirming there are six firm bids already being considered to buy one of them which has trebled from $400,000 to $1.2 million.

    Organisers had little problem of attracting some of the sport’s biggest stars with Alex Hales, Darren Sammy and the majority of the Pakistan’s national players all featuring three months ago.

    Ex-batsman Virender Sehwag was the only Indian to be involved but Ul-Mulk hopes that could change, confirming they are in talks with the BCCI.

    “It’s a known fact all around the world that it’s only the IPL where they will allow their players to play,” said the Dubai-based businessman. “All other international leagues around the world do not have Indian players.

    “We made T10 a success without the Indian players.  So as far as the format of the league is concerned, it’s purely a South Asian league.

    “We are in a country where there is a big cricket following. For us, we already proved that T10 cricket can be a success without the participation of the Indian players.

    “But saying that, we are in dialogue with the BCCI and it is an on-going process. We are talking and that is an on-going process.”

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