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Plans for a new Grand-Slam-style circuit of T20 tournaments, with financial backing from Saudi Arabia, based on a blueprint drawn up by player associations, represents a bold attempt at an incursion into cricket by forces outside the closed shop that is traditional cricket governance.

But for the all the flutter the revelation of the plan has created, it remains to be seen how far it will go if it fails to co-opt, or at least interest, the organisation that holds the key to cricket’s biggest market: the BCCI.

It’s about time, some will argue, given its impact on other major sports. It’s always been a footballing nation – a major Asian force – but it is its forays into boxing, tennis, F1, MMA and golf that have signalled its wider intentions to become a sporting force.

At the moment, there is little detail to these plans. Seven to eight teams from around the world, playing four tournaments in a year, each tournament envisaged to last 10-12 days. These are early sketches with little detail on how such tournaments will fit into what is already a calendar bursting at the seams. For it to be incorporated successfully, it would almost certainly need to cause collateral damage, most likely to some formats of international cricket, such as context-less bilateral ODIs and T20Is. Which countries will be involved? And which teams will they send? National sides, as seems to be one suggestion, or those from already established T20 franchise leagues (and so, is this a revival of the Champions League?), or some other elite geographical representation?

This is not unimportant. Players are at the sharpest end of the impossibilities of this calendar and have been vocal about needing change. Given the player associations involved, some of the world’s leading players will be behind this. But this won’t be exactly like the ATP, because the plans also envisage a stake for the ICC. According to some accounts, Danny Townsend, the chief executive of SRJ, is believed to have interacted with Jay Shah on the sidelines of the IPL auction and brought up, albeit briefly, these plans. It would suggest that Saudi Arabia does not want to make the kind of turbulent and disruptive entry into cricket that it has in golf, for example, where it has created a parallel circuit altogether.

The talk so far has been that revenue from the circuit will be split in some formulation between SRJ, the player associations and the ICC. The ACA’s statement acknowledges that earnings will find a way back to governing bodies, in the hopes that Test cricket can be subsidised.

And, of course, the reality is that, for that to happen, the circuit will need Indian players. That is why Shah was sought out at the IPL auction, given he was BCCI secretary at the time, as well as the ICC chair-elect. Few things of this magnitude can happen successfully in cricket without Shah – or the BCCI – buying into it. And why would the BCCI buy into a concept that, in its fullest ambitions, actually rivals the IPL?

The earliest noises from another major board have been of extreme scepticism. The ECB’s chief executive Richard Gould has told the Age unequivocally “there is no scope or demand for such an idea,” emboldened, no doubt, by the injection of a half-billion-pound private equity bounty into the Hundred. Other member boards could be swayed by the prospect of another revenue stream, but the bottom line is, if the BCCI is not on board with the plan, a big broadcast deal becomes that much more difficult.

A final point to ponder is the idea of the WCA and the ICC working together. The WCA has become increasingly – and justifiably – frustrated with the way the game is being run by the ICC and its members. When it launched its review into the structure, the chair Heath Mills said it had “given up hope” that the game’s leaders could establish a “clear and coherent structure” housing both international cricket and domestic leagues.

It’s almost inevitable that Saudi Arabian money will come into the game. It has broken through into most other major sports and given that attracting Indian tourism remains a key goal, cricket is an obvious in. It’s just far from certain whether this is that way in.

Over the last two weeks, the ECB’s sales process for stakes in Hundred franchises has reached its final round. The total valuation of the eight teams is an eye-watering £975 million but who is buying what, and for how much? This explainer will guide you through it all.

What are investors actually buying?
Each successful bidder has bought shares in one of the eight teams in the Hundred, the ECB’s 100-ball competition which launched in 2021. The deals are subject to exclusivity agreements over the next eight weeks – in the event an agreement with the chosen investor is not reached in that time period, the team will go back on the market.

How will the deals work?
The ECB say the investors have committed to a minimum five-year period, which will run through to the end of 2030. The deals do not include a franchise fee like those paid annually by IPL franchises to the BCCI.

Do they know own the teams outright?
It’s complicated. The ECB has sold its 49% interest in each team, while the eight host clubs had the choice whether to sell some, all, or none of their 51% stakes. The majority have opted to retain their shares, but three have sold at least some, and Yorkshire are selling their entire share to the Sun Group.

But they’re not buying the counties?
No. The majority of counties remain members’ clubs, and the sales process relates only to the ownership of the eight Hundred teams – not their host clubs or their venues. That said, it could open the door for further investment down the line, with the GMR Group becoming the first foreign owners of a county last year when they bought Hampshire.

What happens to the money raised by selling the ECB’s stakes?
Ten percent of the revenue will be invested in recreational cricket. The rest will be split as follows: the first £275 million is divided 19 ways between the 18 first-class counties and MCC; the next £150m is divided 11 ways between the non-host counties; and anything over £425m is divided 19 ways again. The Raine Group, Deloitte and the ECB’s lawyers will also take a percentage for their role in the sale.

And what happens when a host club sells some of their stake?
The host club keeps 80% of the revenue raised from selling its own stake, with 10% going to the recreational game and the rest shared among the other counties (and MCC).

What does 49% of a Hundred franchise actually get you?
It depends. Investors have been speaking to counties for some time, and arrangements will be different at each venue. Each investor has an eight-week exclusivity period with their host county in which they will sign legal agreements and contracts outlining the details of their joint-venture. But the franchise itself represents two teams (men’s and women’s) with a right to play in the Hundred, rather than any tangible assets like a stadium.

How will they make money?
The Hundred teams have been run by the ECB to date, but will now take control of their own sponsorship, ticket sales (including hospitality) and merchandise. The biggest source of revenue will be a central distribution from the ECB, with the eight Hundred teams set to split 80% of domestic and international TV rights between them. Investors will also hope that the enterprise value of their franchise increases as the Hundred grows.

How valuable is the broadcast deal as things stand?
The Hundred forms part of the ECB’s deal with Sky Sports for all cricket during the English summer, including internationals and county cricket. Around a quarter of the overall value of that deal (£51 million approx. annually) is ascribed to the Hundred. There has also been a much smaller deal with the BBC (as free-to-air broadcasters) which is up for renewal. The ECB may consider selling the Hundred’s broadcast rights separately from 2029. It also hopes that international TV rights will rise significantly in the next rights cycle.

Will the teams be renamed?
Probably, although not this year. The ECB is treating the 2025 edition of the Hundred – which runs from August 5-31 – as a transitional season, with new owners assuming full responsibility ahead of the 2026 edition. Some teams may retain their names and kits but the expectation is that several will change, particularly those who are majority-owned by established franchise brands.

Will this investment mean the Hundred gets better players?
Quite possibly, for a number of reasons. Salaries are increasing at the top end in 2025 and the ECB told investors that they should prepare for them to be even higher when they take over. New ownership could also see players who are associated with a particular franchise involved in the Hundred, while the overlap between investors in the Hundred and Major League Cricket should ensure those leagues do not clash again going forwards.

What about Indian players?
Several women’s cricketers from India have already played in the Hundred, including Jemimah Rodrigues, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, but no male Indian player has. While the involvement of four IPL ownership groups could help to prompt change in time, the ECB has been working on the belief that the BCCI is not planning to change its stance on active Indian men’s players featuring in overseas leagues.

When will the Hundred become a T20 competition?
The 100-ball format has generally proved popular with broadcasters, allowing them to fit games into a three-hour window. But there has been plenty of speculation that the tournament could change to the more familiar T20 format at some stage. In practice, the format is highly unlikely to change before the existing broadcast deal runs out at the end of the 2028 season.

On an ECB call to mark the conclusion of the process, Vikram Banerjee, director of business operations, said: “The aspects of the Hundred that have worked well in terms of reaching out to a new market, the fact that it finishes at 9.30pm so families can attend and watch – all those sorts of things are part of what’s appealed to investors. So at this point in time, we haven’t had a huge amount of clamour for changing the format.”

Will more teams be added?
Similarly, this is unlikely to happen in the next four years – though several counties have expressed an interest in hosting a Hundred team if the tournament does expand in future, including Durham, Somerset, Kent (at Beckenham) and Gloucestershire. Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, said last summer that there is ambition for expansion at some point.

Banerjee said on Thursday: “Expansion is a good sign if it happens, so I’ll be delighted if it does… If the tournament grows and cricket grows across the country, then it’ll be almost a no-brainer.”

“I could speak for quite a long time about Rajat, but I’ve settled on three main things that I thought might be interesting to share,” Flower said. “The first one is there’s a calmness and a simplicity to Rajat that I think will stand him in really good stead as a leader and a captain, particularly in the IPL. As we know, the IPL is one of the premier competitions in the world and there’s pressures involved in that, and I think the calm, simple demeanour that inherently lives within Rajat is going to serve him really well in the hurly-burly of that tournament.

“And his decision-making will be tested like all of ours is. But I think these qualities will stand him in really good stead. We watched Rajat very closely as he captained Madhya Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament and we really liked what we saw around those qualities.

“The second thing I’d say about him, he’s inherently quite a quiet guy, but observing him, he cares about the people around him, he cares about the people that he plays with, that he shares a dressing room with. And I think that’s a quality that means that he will instantly have the respect and care from other people. As a leader, those qualities are important. In that people will follow you and get behind you.

“And then the third thing that stands out for me about him is that he’s got a stubbornness and a strength and a steeliness about him. I’ve seen it myself when I’m trying to coach him in the nets and he won’t listen to me, but you see it in the way that he plays. You see the bravery with which he takes on the game and I think that quality within him will be really important for him through the ups and downs, the inevitable ups and downs that come along with playing in the IPL, and now stepping up another gear into leading a big franchise in the IPL.”

Bobat confirmed that Kohli was an option the team management had thought about.

“With our retentions, it’s probably worth noting that we obviously retained three players, three Indians, and of those three, it’s worth saying that both Virat and Rajat were obviously credible captaincy options for us going into the auction,” he said. “And then at the auction itself, we spent quite a lot of time thinking about leadership characteristics. We didn’t necessarily want to go into the auction and have our heart set on a captain because we felt that was quite a dangerous approach and then you end up probably overvaluing somebody potentially.”

In a video released by RCB, Kohli congratulated Patidar on the appointment, emphasising that he has earned the right to be in this position.

“The way you have grown in this franchise and the way you have performed, you have really made a place in the hearts of all the fans of RCB all over India and they get really excited to watch you play,” Kohli said. “I’ve seen Rajat evolve in the last couple of years as a player. He has got the chance to play for India. His game has improved many levels in the last couple of years.

“The way he has led his state team as well and the responsibility that he’s taken and has shown everyone that he has what it takes to lead this amazing franchise and I just wish him all the very best and I would request all the fans to show him absolute support, get right behind him and know that he will always and always do what’s best for the team, what’s best for this franchise.”

Discussions within the group confirmed to the coaches that Patidar was the right choice, Bobat said.

“Andy and I felt quite blessed that we had quite a few to choose from. Whether we went Indian or overseas was an important discussion point for us. We felt quite strongly that an Indian captain was preferable”

Mo Bobat

Bobat also said that they wanted an Indian captain to lead RCB this time around.

“Andy and I felt quite blessed that we had quite a few to choose from,” he said. “Whether we went Indian or overseas was an important discussion point for us. We felt quite strongly that an Indian captain was preferable.

“That’s nothing against any overseas options, but we were really keen on an Indian option primarily because it’s an Indian competition on Indian pitches against predominantly Indian players. So somebody who’s got that local knowledge and insight is really, really helpful for us.”

While this will be 31-year-old Patidar’s first captaincy stint in the IPL, he has captained MP in the 2024-25 season of the 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (where they finished runners-up) and the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy. Those tournaments were his first full-time assignments as captain in domestic cricket.

“I had a conversation with Mo last year,” Patidar said. “I told him before getting the captaincy of RCB, I want to captain a state team. When they told me about this, that it could be between Virat and Rajat, I was happy. I can’t express my reaction.

“I really feel good right now. If I talk about my way of captaincy, I’m not that much expressive, but at the same time, I’m aware of the situation of the matches. So I think for me it’s important to back my players and stand with them and give the sort of involvement where they feel relaxed and confident. So yeah, I’m lucky that I am surrounded by one of the best people in the team and we have a group of leaders as well where their experience and ideas will definitely help in my new leadership role and growth as an individual also.”

RCB have not won the IPL title yet, though they have been finalists three times, the last of which was in 2016. They have made the playoffs in four of the last five seasons, including in 2024, when they won their last six league matches to get into the top four but then lost the Eliminator.

With RCB appointing Patidar, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Capitals (DC) are the only teams yet to name their captains for the upcoming season. Shreyas Iyer, KKR’s captain last year, will lead Punjab Kings (PBKS) this year, while the former DC captain Rishabh Pant is now leading Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

Following the crushing first Test loss to India in Perth in November, there was a moment when Australia’s Test team looked as though they may have reached a cliff much sooner than predicted.

Ten weeks, five Test wins and two significant series victories later, that seismic defeat in Perth feels like nothing but a bump in the road, with the horizon looking even better than expected.

Last summer they used just 12 players across seven Tests home and away, playing three of them without a single player under the age of 29, and produced less than convincing series wins over Pakistan and New Zealand whilst drawing with West Indies at home in between.

It was a summer where Australia showed versatility and adaptability in both decision-making and execution across a vast spectrum of conditions and opponents.

Reports of Smith’s decline as a Test batter were greatly exaggerated, as were fears of Australia’s batting depth overall.

The performance of Inglis and Webster, although he didn’t make a century, and the looming return of Green means Australia is now flush with options ahead of the World Test Championship final which will create a selection squeeze.

The treatment of the two youngsters in Konstas and Nathan McSweeney rankled many, with the latter felt to be set up for failure as an opener after earning his place through middle-order Shield form, while the former captured the nation’s hearts only to be cast aside based on the conditions in Sri Lanka.

A quick glance, however, at the top 10 Australian Test run-scorers shows a litany of examples of players given a taste of Test cricket at a young age, losing their place and then returning to dominate at the highest level.

Smith himself was dropped after making 77 in his second Test as a 21-year-old, recalled five Tests later, then dropped again for two full years before becoming Australia’s best since Bradman.

Australia will still experience some pain whenever Smith and Khawaja finish, but the future looks brighter than it did 10 weeks ago.

That next rung of Sean Abbott, Brendan Doggett and Nathan McAndrew are all performing well at first-class level but all are over the age of 30. Replacing two ageing generational batters out of six in the short to medium term looks far easier than replacing three generational quicks out of three.

For now, Australia march to a second consecutive WTC final with enough depth and confidence that any of whatever 15 they choose in their squad could play a role in the final. Thereafter they play three Tests in the West Indies, where the performance in Sri Lanka might have more bearing on how they set up than how they play at Lord’s, before a date with England for a home Ashes. Perth feels a long time ago.

Following a hiatus for the BBL, Sheffield Shield cricket returns on Saturday for the final four rounds of the regular season to see who will make it into the final at the end of March amid what is a very tight table after six rounds. Here’s a reminder of how things stand.

1. South Australia

Leading the table, South Australia can dream of playing in their first Sheffield Shield final since 2016-17 and pushing for their first title since 1995-96.

Who will they be missing?

2. Victoria

Sitting a little over a point behind SA, Victoria are again well-placed for a spot in the final for the third time in four years having narrowly missed out last summer.

They lost out on a chance to go top when they fell to Queensland by 23 runs in the round before the BBL having overturned a deficit of 109 to beat the same opponents in Brisbane. They have three away trips in the final four rounds.

Who will they be missing?

3. New South Wales

NSW were declared champions in the Covid-disrupted 2019-2020 season but have not won the Shield in a full campaign since 2013-14. The game against Victoria in Sydney in round eight could be critical for them.

Who will they be missing?

4. Western Australia

The defending champions have given themselves a bit to do if they want to make it four titles in a row after suffering two defeats in their first six matches.

They had been looking good after an opening-round draw was followed by big back-to-back victories against Tasmania (who they beat in last season’s final) but Victoria toppled them in Melbourne and they were just unable to hang on in Sydney.

Who will they be missing?

5. Queensland

Queensland kept their season afloat with the 23-run victory over Victoria at the MCG but there remains a significant gap to make up to reach the top two.

They had the better of a draw against NSW in Sydney where they weren’t helped by the weather but were on the back foot against Tasmania after being made to follow-on. They have two home games during February before finishing on the road in March.

Who will they be missing?

6. Tasmania

Three defeats, including the last-ball meltdown against South Australia, and just one win in six leaves Tasmania at the foot of the table the season after they reached the final last summer.

Back-to-back defeats against Western Australia hurt them early in the season but they played superbly to beat NSW in Sydney with only 13 minutes remaining on the final day. In their favour for the latter part of the summer is that they have three home games out of four.

Who will they be missing?

One metric that can be used to answer that question is to judge the number of close games, which we’ll define as matches that were won by 10 or fewer runs of with six or fewer balls to spare. In the 30 group stage matches in 2025, there have been six tight matches, including one which was DLS affected. In 2024, there were 10 and 2023, nine. Similarly, this season, the number of matches won by a margin of more than 30 runs or six wickets is 20, the same as last year but seven more matches than the 13 in 2023.

Word from those who have had bat in hand is that pitches are more challenging because they are slower, lower and have turned more than usual. Considering that the competition takes place at the same time – early January to early February – every year, it’s puzzled many that the surfaces are behaving like it’s much later in the summer and explanations have been hard to come by.

Evan Flint, the former head groundsman at both Newlands and the Wanderers, believes the age and continual use of the surfaces across the country is starting to show. “Ideally a pitch should be relaid every 10 to 15 years, however with increasing content it’s impossible to do,” he told ESPNcricinfo “A new pitch takes 12 to 18 months before it can be used again, so this puts too much strain on the other three or four central pitches.”

That could mean that this season proves be an outlier, with the tired surfaces on their last legs, following what has also been a heavy international load. Before the SA20, there were Tests at four of the six venues (last season there were only Tests at two) and white-ball internationals at all six. “A lot of the central pitches were used before the tournament started and used surfaces often get slower over the course of the season,” Flint said.

In addition, heavy rain everywhere except the Western Cape added to the challenges at the start of the competition, especially for inexperienced groundsmen. There is a new curator at Kingsmead, and, since Flint left, fairly new curators at the Wanderers and Newlands, which means that there’s a lot of learning that takes place on the job and occasionally even those who have been around for a long time, don’t get it right. “It’s also a difficult job, so even with all the experience it can sometimes go wrong,” Flint said.

And that just has not worked as well. The 2025 league phase has seen the lowest percentage of runs scored in boundaries: 53.8%. In 2024, almost 60% of runs came in boundaries and in 2023 it was 56.8%. Fleming also mooted the idea that they may be due to when the games are played.

“One of the things I’m learning from being here a few years is that the starting time is a little bit of a challenge,” he said. “A lot of domestic cricket is played through the evening hours where the wickets have played quite well. We’ve found there’s quite a distinct difference between the last part of the day and then moving into the evening, even if the wicket’s dry.”

Most SA20 games start at 5.30pm local time, which is daylight in the Western Cape, where the sun sets at 8pm in peak summer, twilight in Gqeberha and on the Highveld and just about sunset in Durban. That means some matches are played as mostly day games, others as day-night and the rest as night games.

On double header days, the early match is entirely a day game, starting at 1pm, and on Sundays, the matches start at 3.30pm and end just after sunset. Under lights, the ball tends to come on quicker and there perhaps isn’t as much of that as there could be, but match times are set at what’s best for broadcasters, not batters and that may sum up how we should actually measure the SA20.

On screens, it is seen as the tournament with some of the best vibes: the crowds are diverse and engaged and have gotten behind their teams, some of the world’s biggest names have smiles on their faces when they’re playing, and even when they’re losing.

In the aftermath of Capitals’ 95-run defeat in their final game, the players gathered on the outfield with the families and their former captain Wayne Parnell, had a hit about with Parnell’s two young children and looked on as MICT set up a net on the field so they could train for their week in the playoffs.

Capitals felt no need to send either their new coach, Jonathan Trott, or their new captain Kyle Verreynne, to explain their dismal season and instead put up their rookie Keagan Lion-Cachet to the press afterwards. He was all smiles in defeat and “couldn’t have asked for anything else,” other than to be part of the tournament that has brought cricket in South Africa back to life.

“I’ve learned so much more than what I knew in the beginning, and cricket is a game where the more you learn the better you get,” he said. “The more people share their own experiences and skills with you, the more you learn.”

And one thing about the SA20 in its early years, is that it’s a tournament that will keep learning.