In 2020 there are now officially four formats of white-ball cricket: 50 overs, 20 overs, 10 overs and 100 balls. 50-over (or List A) cricket stands on its own; in many ways closer to first-class than T20 cricket.  Because of pressure from television stations for made-for-TV cricket, the proliferation of formats is happening around short-format cricket.  (For the sake of convenience I’ll use “short-format” as a collective noun for 20 overs, 10 overs and 100 balls.) Any new short-format league firstly has to be approved by its home board and then by the International Cricket Council (ICC).  For the period January 2019 to March 2020, the ICC received from its 92 Associate Members no fewer than 25 applications for new short-format tournaments!  There are also the established short-format leagues hosted annually by the 12 Full Members, such as the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Australian Big Bash League (BBL), the … Continue reading