Canada declares own T20 League to held from June this year

The innumerable success of franchise-based Twenty20 leagues in the world has even inspired Canada to join in on the craze, with its own ‘Global T20 Canada’ set to take place between June 28 and July 15 this year. Most of the well-known cricket-playing countries have already started their T20 leagues following the success of IPL and now Canada has become ready to take the risk, despite its unpopularity in cricket. A report by Cricinfo stated that six franchises are going to participate and the league phases will be played in Round Robin phases and knockouts have been decided to play like IPL’s playoffs format.

“Each team will play six games in the league phase: an initial round-robin followed by a single-match second round in which the teams will play one other opponent. The top four teams after the league phase advance to the playoffs beginning on July 12,” said the report.

“Similar to the IPL’s knockout stages, the top two teams in the league stages will contest the first playoff, the winner of which will proceed to the final. The losing side will then play the winner of the second playoff between the third and fourth-placed side, with the winner of this encounter also making the final,” it added.

The tournament is set to have a formal draft system to fill up the six teams - Caribbean All-Stars, Toronto Nationals, Montreal Tigers, Ottawa Royals, Vancouver Knights and Winnipeg Hawks. Only four Canadian players will be required to be drafted into every squad, with no mandate on their inclusion in the starting eleven. There is also no indication as to whether any foreign players will make the player draft pool.

According to the schedule released this week, all games are to be held 25 miles north of downtown Toronto in King City at the Maple Leaf Cricket Club.