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A Southern Hemisphere Twenty20 competition is in the pipeline for 2011, as the insatiable thirst for the game's fashionable short form gains pace.
Talks between New Zealand Cricket, Cricket Australia and their South African counterparts have produced the concept of a city-based, franchise-owned event made up of two conferences, one would be based in South Africa, the other in Australia.
The league is likely to be staged about September-October when none of the countries has heavy international commitments, reducing the risk of conflict with fellow test-playing nations.
Teams could include each country's best players and internationals from other countries. There is scope for players from the next tier down in each country to get a slice of the action as well.
As the Indian Premier League is held in April-May, top Indians could turn out for an Australasian- or South African-based franchise.
Teams in each conference would play for places in a finals series.
"The success of the inaugural IPL season in India is an indication of the demand for regional Twenty20 competitions played at a level immediately below international cricket," New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said yesterday.
"Gathering a large number of the world's marquee players into a single competition over a compressed timeframe can capture the public imagination and create new audiences for cricket."
The challenge for the three boards was to arrange it to complement international cricket, he said.
The evidence of commercial benefits from Twenty20 competitions had been shown by the IPL tournament. On a far smaller scale, crowds for New Zealand's domestic three-hour tournament have been impressive.
Twenty20 competitions of various forms are sprouting round the globe. This has the potential to put a solid Southern Hemisphere foot in the mix.
