Reports : ECB plans for 12-a-side teams in new 100-ball competition

Reports : ECB plans for 12-a-side teams in new 100-ball competition

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According to reports, cricket teams could become 12-a-side under proposals for the new 100-ball competition being considered by the England & Wales Cricket Board. MCC, the custodian of laws of cricket, has stated that ECB is free to devise its own playing regulation for the experimental competition.

According to reports from The Telegraph, under the shock proposal by ECB, each side would select a team of 12 but only 11 would be permitted to bat and field. That means one player would be picked purely as a specialist batsman and not take the field during the opposition’s innings, with a specialist bowler or fielder not featuring when his own side were batting.

The proposal would further differentiate the new tournament from the T20 Blast and existing leagues around the world but would contravene one of cricket’s most fundamental tenets, that matches take place between teams of 11, and would be a seismic change to the game. The concept would shock the cricket fraternity and, following on from last week’s confirmation that all overs would be five balls rather than six.

If the ECB goes through with the proposals, it would not require any further approval from the MCC, who have said that the ECB is free to devise its own playing regulations for the competition.

While cricket has traditionally been an 11-a-side game, the proposals for the new 100-ball competition bear some resemblance to the Supersub concept that was introduced in one-day internationals in 2005. Under those rules, each side was permitted to make one substitution during a match. The concept was widely unpopular and failed to encourage all-rounders as the International Cricket Council had hoped. It was quietly dropped in 2006, after a 10-month trial.

More recently, a number of domestic competitions around the world - including Australia and England - have recently introduced concussion substitutes, with teams allowed to replace a player who has a concussion with a like-for-like substitute. But the proposals for 12 players-a-side in the new 100-ball tournament would be for tactical, rather than medical, reasons.

The ECB has also been considering other new concepts for the competition. Each of the eight new sides is likely to have a general manager, modelled on US sports, charged with maintaining the high performance of the team, and ultimately hiring and firing the head coach. The general managers themselves could be accountable to the tournament organizers.

Serious attempts would be made to reduce the amount of time wasted during matches, reflecting concerns that the T20 format has become too bloated because of drinks or equipment being bought on to the field for players, the delays between overs and the lengthy time to restart matches after each wicket. The proposals come as the T20 Blast, the existing 18-team county T20 competition, has been enjoying a bumper summer. Last year the Blast attracted a record aggregate attendance of 9,02,000, and is on course to top that this year.

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