Domestic Cricket Around The World

Seven months on from the first disruptions in world sport we are beginning to appreciate how difficult putting on cricket tournaments is becoming around the world.

While the IPL, CPL and the English summer have given us blueprints of how a competition can work under such testing circumstances, it is by no means an easy time for cricket governing bodies around the world. Every country will have it’s own way of dealing with these issues facing them, not least because they are all in different stages of dealing with the Coronavirus outbreak.

One thing that is very noticeable across the domestic scene around the world is the trend of Cricket Boards dropping One Day competitions from the schedule to accommodate First Class and T20 competitions in truncated seasons.

We have seen how Australia plans to take on the Sheffield Shield and have a clear idea of how they will structure their summer both domestically and internationally but how are other countries planning on kicking off their domestic leagues? We thought we’d look at countries who would usually be bowling their first balls of the season at this time of year to see what their plans are.

New Zealand

New Zealand has been one of the success stories in terms of their dealing with the virus and have been keen to let people know that they are open to hosting as full a season as possible.

21 men’s internationals and 2 women’s series have been planned but as yet only 10 games have been confirmed against both West Indies and Pakistan. The domestic schedule itself is not due to be announced until after the full international summer has been finalised. Limited overs series between Bangladesh and Australia are still to be announced.

19th October is the date that has been pencilled in for the start of the summer with the Plunket Shield and January and February providing a natural window for the T20 Super Smash for both the men and the women. As yet little has been mentioned about any 50 Over competition which could possibly fall by the wayside much like it did in England.

There is also a good chance that crowds will be able to attend these fixtures. New Zealand are fantastic at allowing fans free access to Plunket Shield games and will this year offer subsidised tickets to T20 Smash games too.

South Africa

Unfortunately not much can be said about the South African domestic season.

No news has come out of Cricket South Africa in terms of what domestic cricket we can expect and when. Despite this however, sides have been in preseason training and there are hopes that fans may be allowed into the grounds in some form.

South Africa men’s side also pulled out of a series in the Caribbean in August as well. Unwanted news for the West Indies who had been so strong in their position in coming to England.

The only cricket to have been played in South Africa since the outbreak has been the 3T Tournament to raise funds for those affected by the virus but only time will tell what form the domestic cricket scene in South Africa will take. Last year the CSA 4 Day Franchise Series started on 7th October so hopefully a fixture list will be released soon.

India

The IPL has this year moved to the UAE with Abu Dhabi as one of the hosts

(Photo Credit: Abu Dhabi Cricket)

The IPL has already taken off this year without a hitch and the UAE has been a fantastic host to the world’s biggest T20 competition.

Alongside the IPL, the BCCI also has a number of other domestic competitions that it usually hosts. This year however it seems as though these will be stripped to a minimal amount to avoid excessive travel throughout this massive country which has been hit so badly by the virus. With this in mind India is set to cut back the amount of cricket being played. The 50 Over format is set to be abandoned for the season but, as mentioned previously, this has become a theme from a number of countries.

The season in India is set to begin on 19th November with the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, a competition which many will hope to prove themselves enough to earn an IPL contract. The Ranji Trophy will take place over the course of the summer but other First Class competitions are also likely to be dropped.

In terms of Women’s Cricket, both One Day and T20 Competitions will be taking place between November and April although they are also likely to be far smaller than previous years.

Sri Lanka

Despite struggling in the past to launch a major franchised T20 League, 2020 could be the unlikely year that Sri Lanka finally get this competition off the ground.

The competition has already been pushed back to November 21st, having originally been planned for August, whilst the auction has been penned in for October 9th.

Three locations have been chosen for the Lankan Premier League: Kandy, Dambulla & Hambantota and only two players as yet have teams; both Lasith Malinga and Shahid Afridi both being picked for Galle.

Sri Lanka have had issues with their international summer as Bangladesh look to pull out of a scheduled Test Series over a dispute regarding the length of quarantine that the Bangladeshi players would be expecting to endure.

Little information has been given about other domestic competitions in Sri Lanka with much of the focus riding on the success of the LPL. With last season’s First Class Competition only culminating, belatedly, at the end of August perhaps it is unfair to be demanding the organisation of next year’s so soon.

Pakistan

Pakistan are confident that the country is on top of the Coronavirus outbreak and is therefore able to host cricket. Indeed T20 cricket in Pakistan has returned already as the National T20 Cup is currently underway. The PSL is also set to be completed in November with matches kicking off on November 14th.

The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is also set to take place from the 25th October with squads being announced back in August. This is an important year for Pakistan, who, on top of dealing with the effects of the virus on top level sport, also hope to welcome Zimbabwe for a limited overs series and (perhaps more significantly) South Africa for a full Test series in the New Year.

Although fans have not been allowed into the grounds, supporters will be hugely grateful for touring teams returning to Pakistan once again.

Rest of the world

As previously mentioned, Bangladesh have postponed their tour to Sri Lanka and are looking to focus more on bringing domestic cricket back to the country before the end of the year. They are possibly looking at playing some T20 and First Class cricket but limiting the amount of players at any one time. Afghanistan completed their T20 competition, the Shpageeza Cricket League, in September. While the One Day competition is due to begin this month, there is still now news on any First Class Cricket. While Pakistan will host Zimbabwe in a limited overs series there has not been so much good news coming out of the Zimbabwe domestic scene despite a new limited overs competition called the National Premier League has begun.

The aim of the NPL has been to revive the fortunes of cricket in the nation. Unfortunately the competition has thus far been plagued by low scores and with no other cricket publicly organised yet, Zimbabwe could be in for a long summer.