ETPL set to be postponed

Organisers hope to push back to September, but 2026 looks the more likely option

📸: Cricket Ireland

The European T20 Premier League (ETPL) looks likely to be postponed from its originally scheduled window in July of this year.

The latest attempt to organise a franchise competition involving Irish, Dutch and Scottish teams was set to kick off on July 15th, with games running up to August 8th. Dublin and Rotterdam were to host the six-franchise competition, with Clontarf and Malahide pencilled in as the Irish venues.

It remains unclear if all six individual franchises have been sold to owners, a move required to raise capital. Organisers are understood to be exploring the option of playing the tournament in September, but international fixtures may force plans to be pushed back until 2026. Cricket Scotland’s provisional schedule has them playing in the CWC League 2 in Canada from August 27th to September 11th, while Ireland’s T20 series against England starts just six days later.

When visiting Ireland over St Patrick’s weekend, the ETPL’s majority owner, Abhishek Bachchan, said he was confident that the league would take place this year. Speaking to The Irish Cricket Podcast, the Bollywood actor, who owns a number of sports teams in his home country, said he and his business partners were “almost there” in the process of finding team owners.

Any postponement would mark the seventh year that an Irish franchise league has been delayed. In 2019, Cricket Ireland worked with different business partners in a bid to get the Euro Slam underway. Team names were announced, a player draft was held and marquee players - including Eoin Morgan - were assigned to franchises. 15 days before the opening game, it was announced that the event would be postponed. A lack of investment into individual teams proved to be a stumbling block.

The Covid pandemic ensured efforts to revive the Slam in 2020 and 2021 were unsuccessful. In August of last year, Cricket Ireland formally entered into a partnership with Rules Sport Tech, sanctioning the new company to organise a T20 competition. The name was changed to the European T20 Premier League.

As part of the most recent search for investment, the ETPL sought an annual fee of $3 million over 10 years - totalling $30 million - to purchase one of the six franchises. This publication previously reported that league organisers were confident of securing at least two investors involved in the IPL, though no public announcement on their identity would be made until all teams were sold.

According to documents sent to prospective owners, the ETPL is eyeing up Travis Head, Rashid Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Sunil Narine and Faf du Plessis, as well as number of retired Indian players, as marquee signings. The ETPL has not yet announced any player acquisitions. An auction had been provisionally scheduled for early June.

Cricket Ireland declined to comment. Cricket Scotland, the KNCB and Rules Sport Tech have also been contacted.