The resurrection of the European Premier League

The long promised Euro T20 Premier League is back on the cards!

After years of back and forth, the unique plan to have a multinational T20 competition headed up by Ireland is back on track. Alongside Ireland as the full member nation, the Netherlands and Scotland will join the competition with full List A status after being sanctioned by the ICC in what has been named the European T20 Premier League - ETPL for short .

Whilst details are somewhat sketchy yet, the competition is set to be hosted in July and August and teams representing Dublin, Belfast, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Glasgow and Edinburgh will all take part.

This isn’t the first time a competition like this has been attempted though…

The Euro T20 Slam was initially Ireland’s foray into franchise cricket and was similarly set out with Netherlands and Scotland set to enter teams too. Big names were advertised for the tournament with Brendon McCullum, Rashid Khan and Eoin Morgan set to appear and even being given teams.

Paul Stirling is likely to play a big role in the competition after being an established franchise cricketer already

Initially planned for 2019, the competition hit financial snags and was postponed to 2020. In 2020 covid hit and it was delayed again. Eventually, the competition petered out and never reemerged.

This time, sustainability and financial management is far more at the forefront of the planning of this Euro T20 league. Bollywood actor, Abhishek Bachchan, is co-owner of the league to add to his sports portfolio of Kabaddi and football teams.

Part of the reason for so much interest in Ireland is that it is one of the last untapped cricket boards not to have a franchise league…even the US and Canada beat them to it! Close by and you have two of the consistently strongest Associate teams in the Netherlands and Scotland, so a unification with List A status makes sense. Whilst the Euro T20 Slam may not have succeeded it did create the framework for this new competition.

With 7 months to go until the competition is set to start, there’s clearly a lot of preparation to do and there will be plenty of questions to answer. The most pressing of these questions will be the layout of the tournament and the players themselves with an auction set to take place.

Within the 3 nations, there is a limited number of grounds that would be able to host a top class T20 tournament both in terms of capacity and facilities. One decision that has been made is that the games are likely to be held in Ireland and the Netherlands. Most likely the grounds that have the capabilities to host would be Stormont, Malahide, the VRA Ground and the Hazelaarweg Stadion.

One of the sticking points of the last iteration of this tournament was the promise of big players who the Euro Slam simply didn’t have the money to pay. With better financial management of ETPL salary brackets may be smaller than rival leagues around the world - and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A focus on sustainable growth and proof of concept will certainly give rise to local players - something early press releases have heavily stressed.

For the Scottish, Irish and Dutch players, a competition such as this is something they’ve been crying out for. Ultimately, public consciousness is vital for so many of them and a televised competition, for some, will be their only airtime between international tournaments…if they make it that far!

The Netherlands and Scotland have produced valiant displays in the last few editions of the T20 World Cup but inevitably we then don't hear about the likes of Mark Watt, George Munsey, Vikramjit Singh and Paul van Meekeren outside of these games unless you are avid followers of the players.

By gaining attention in a league such as this, doors to other competitions may open too on the lucrative franchise circuit. Again, for some, this may open the door to professionalism where boards may not be able to fully subsidise their cricketing life.

It’s early stages yet, but if it’s able to go the distance and show that it works - the European T20 Premier League could be the first of its kind.