Former MCC chief Keith Bradshaw queries ECB 'innovation for innovation's sake'

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Keith Bradshaw, the SACA chief executive, says he hopes that the ECB's new 100-ball tournament is not "innovation for innovation's sake", ten years after his own proposals for a franchise-style T20 tournament in England and Wales were deemed too radical for serious consideration by the board.

Bradshaw, who was chief executive at MCC for five years from 2006, returned to South Australia in 2011 to oversee an acclaimed Aus$565 million refit of the historic Adelaide Oval. Adelaide Strikers are also the reigning champions of the Big Bash League - a tournament whose success in attracting kids and families back to cricket has been a major influence in the ECB's recent attempts to reframe their own version of the sport.

However, critics of the 100-ball proposal - which had been shrouded in secrecy until the ECB's surprise announcement last week - fear that this is an attempt by the board to reinvent the wheel after failing to exploit the T20 boom, despite having set those very wheels in motion with the original Twenty20 Cup back in 2003.

"I hope the new format is not innovation for innovation's sake," Bradshaw told ESPNcricinfo. "It seems to me we have something that works at the moment, in terms of 20 overs. Having lived in Australia for the past six years, the Big Bash has been a stunning success, not just in terms of the cricket itself but in terms of delivering to grassroots cricket, the interest of young children, families and, in particular, women.

"Offering reduced content to broadcasters, I'm not sure how that works, but I wish them well with it, and will watch with interest. The format looks like it's going to be exciting."

Who knows how different the landscape in the UK might look now, however, had Bradshaw's proposal for a city-based T20 league been given proper consideration by the ECB in the early years of the T20 revolution in 2008.

Working in collaboration with the then-Surrey chairman David Stewart, Bradshaw's plan was conceived along very similar lines to the IPL, which had just completed a hugely successful maiden season that spring. It could also have predated the BBL by several seasons, not to mention the Caribbean Premier League, the Bangladesh Premier League and the Pakistan Super League, all of which have emerged as T20 drawcards in recent years.

As an independent director of the ECB, Bradshaw had intended for the proposal to be discussed and fine-tuned in confidence, and was unprepared for the reaction when the document was leaked to the BBC midway through that summer's Lord's Test against South Africa.

"I guess I always felt it was booted out for the wrong reasons," Bradshaw said. "I've had a lot of people contacting me privately, who are closely aligned in influential positions, suggesting this should have gone ahead. It probably wasn't given a fair hearing at the time."

The bulk of the concerns about the Bradshaw-Stewart plan were similar to those being voiced in county cricket at the moment - namely that the focus on the Test-match counties as host venues for the nine-team tournament would lead to the marginalisation of the second-tier venues and Minor Counties, all of whom needed to be persuaded of the wisdom of reframing the ECB constitution, which had long required any professional tournament in England and Wales to be open to all first-class counties.

"There was a criticism that the minor counties and non-Test grounds were going to suffer and, in hindsight, we didn't sell that message properly," said Bradshaw. "We weren't ready for our proposal to be leaked, but I think it would have been a stunning success had we been able to implement it. It would have been for the good of the game.

"At the time there was certainly a campaign against us," he added. "It wasn't supported by a majority of the ECB board at that time, and they were very vocal in their lack of support for that particular proposal. And we probably didn't stand a chance, is my reflection on it now."

The instant success of the IPL - in particular the sums of money suddenly being offered to players for six weeks' work - was a significant factor in the ECB's failure to address the T20 issue properly, but also in the revolutionary aims of the plan. However, the prevailing feeling at board level in 2008 was that the ECB had created a monster, one that threatened the primacy of Test cricket among other things, and so there was a widespread reluctance to look on the new format as an opportunity.

It is only in the past couple of years that the ECB has finally recognised the need for their best players to be given the freedom to play in the IPL, both to allow them to capitalise on the financial opportunities, but also to get the big-match experience that comes from playing in such a high-pressure environment. The flip side, however, is one that was voiced by Surrey's director of cricket, Alec Stewart, earlier this month, when he called for a cut-off date for players being poached from county cricket to play in the event.

"At the time the IPL was just kicking off, and my concern - and I know David Stewart's as well - was that the IPL would become more powerful and potentially our players would be attracted to that competition and lost to the international arena," said Bradshaw. "That hasn't necessarily come to pass but it was a concern. We wanted a competition that could rival the IPL, in terms of quality of cricket, revenues that flow into the game, and the entertainment for the people.

"We were prepared to have a crack, put our head out, and prepare to get it kicked off, which in many ways it was. But I felt at the time it was a great solution and opportunity."

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