The Spin
Panel of Selectors
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2005
ECB announce new English premier League
The ECB's conference of the counties with the top brass of the board ended with the surprising announcement of the formation of an English Premier League to rival the IPL.
The meeting was called just one month ago and was expected to be a quiet affair with very little action ongoing. Not only were the counties expected to outright refuse the idea of a franchised tournament, but were expected to demand no changes to the calendar as it is now. What happened could not be further from that expectation.
Giles Clarke, ECB chairman, emerged from the meeting to deliver a statement on behalf of all the counties and the ECB itself. "The ECB and all 18 first-class counties today came to an agreement to start a new, franchised tournament to be played alongside the current county season, to replace the Twenty20 cup.
"This tournament, to be named the English Premier League, will involve the combination of counties into 8 franchises around the country. These 8 will play in 2 divisions, the North and South divisions each with 4 teams playing each other twice, before the top 2 teams in each group progress to the playoffs, first to decide the Northern and Southern champions and then to play the other champion in the National Championship.
"We are certain that an event of this caliber will see many big name players interested. In the interest of fairness, each franchise starts with an empty squad, no county players are carried over into the squads. Any players willing to take part will then enter a draft, to take place before the tournament starts, which will decide the squads.
"This is an exciting venture for all involved and we can only believe that it will be very successful."
The list of franchises was later revealed as follows (the counties in brackets are those forming the franchise): Southampton (Hampshire/Sussex), Manchester (Lancashire/Durham), Birmingham (Worcestershire/Warwickshire/Northamptonshire), South London (Kent/Surrey), Leeds (Yorkshire/Derbyshire), Nottingham (Nottinghamshire/Leicestershire), Cardiff (Glamorgan/Gloucestershire/Somerset), North London(Middlesex/Essex). These are set to announce their full names, including nicknames, at a later date.
So there is what has happened, now for your part!
You can choose one franchise in your attempt to gain glory. I must now note that the first stage of the story, the draft, will take place over MSN and, seeing as I am British, will be taking place at a time suited for Brits. I know this may compromise some people's potential involvement, but I would rather not do it in the thread and take forever.
Southampton Saints (Hampshire/Sussex) - TheMongrel
Home Ground: The Rose Bowl
Cash: £10,000,000
Manchester Storm (Lancashire/Durham) - WORLD CHAMPIONS
Home Ground: Old Trafford
Cash: £9,000,000
Birmingham Bulls (Worcestershire/Warwickshire/Northamptonshire) - CoolzEng95
Home Ground: Edgebaston
Cash: £8,700,000
South London Stars (Kent/Surrey) - shefellover93
Home Ground: The Oval
Cash: £8,500,000
Leeds Mavericks (Yorkshire/Derbyshire) - ajay.bhat
Home Ground: Headingley
Cash: £8,200,000
Nottingham Rebels (Nottinghamshire/Leicestershire) - lancashire666
Home Ground: Trent Bridge
Cash: £8,000,000
Cardiff Dragons (Glamorgan/Gloucestershire/Somerset) - shantanu rooney
Home Ground: Sophia Gardens
Cash: £7,500,000
North London Bulldogs (Middlesex/Essex) - Maney2k8
Home Ground: Lords
Cash: £6,500,000
Sign up to be the manager of a team. Simply write which team you want to be. You must be committed to picking a team for each game, there won't be that many so stay active! This is on cricsim and so when picking players later it is the average which is important.
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