Twenty 20 Blog

Twenty20 cricket is expanding further in New Zealand, with the six domestic associations set to play 10 rounds this summer.

The competition will run through January and culminate in a one-off final between the top two teams, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Justin Vaughan announced today.

He said the expansion from last year’s eight rounds was partly because the winners of the competition were guaranteed a place in the Champions League tournament.

Any of the 12 teams taking part in that competition — which includes last year’s New Zealand champions Otago — automatically earn $US100,000 ($NZ143,410).

“The advent of the Champions League is going to give unprecedented focus to this year’s domestic twenty20 championship,” Vaughan said.

“To be competing and knowing to win the competition would take you on a trip to India to play against the leading domestic Twenty20 teams in the world is extraordinary.

“To really make sure that our competition this year is going to have the absolute most meaning, we are extending our domestic Twenty20 competition to make sure that we get the very best team winning entry into the Champions League.”

Vaughan said the tournament would have added prestige this year as all the Black Caps available.

Three international players have also been confirmed. Powerful Sri Lankan batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan will play for Northern Districts, English allrounder Dimitri Mascarenhas returns for Otago and English batsman Owais Shah will play for Wellington.

Vaughan also confirmed that ventilation systems producers HRV would sponsor the tournament for the next three years.

He said the Twenty20 format had boosted cricket participation and publicity tremendously since its introduction.

“We’ve seen record participation numbers in New Zealand in the past 12 months — we’ve now got over 104,000 registered players — and a lot of that is due to the positive impact that shorter forms of the game have had.”

Vaughan said the one-day, 50-over tournament would this year become an eight-round event with an expanded semifinal series, while the four day competition will have two full rounds and no final.

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