Organisers of the new European T20 Premier League (ETPL) say they are in discussions with “top IPL franchises” and aim to attract a mix of international owners for its teams.
The upcoming annual Twenty20 franchise tournament, which has been formally sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), is a joint venture between Cricket Ireland and sports management company Rules Global, which counts Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan as a co-founder.
The cricketing boards of Scotland and the Netherlands have also signed up to the project, with the competition set to initially consist of six teams from Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Playing venues are currently being scouted and finalised.
The ETPL had intended for its first season to take place between July and August this summer but is now planning for its inaugural campaign to run from 26th August to 20th September 2026, reducing clashes with other franchise tournaments.
The decision to push back the ETPL’s 33-match season was made after several potential franchise owners prioritised completing deals to buy team stakes in English cricket’s The Hundred, while cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan also complicated matters.
Speaking to SportsPro, two of Rules Global’s other co-founders, Saurav Banerjee and Priyanka Kaul, confirmed they were fielding strong interest from potential team owners and were focused on landing “top of the line” investors.
“We are talking to top IPL franchises,” said Banerjee. “Our intention is to not have all six ETPL franchises owned by IPL team owners. We want a mix.
“We are progressing well. I’m happy with the conversations that we are having. There is a lot of action that’s happening.”
Ready to pay “top dollar” for players
New ETPL owners will be free to sign their own sponsorships, rather than deals being handled centrally as has been the case with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for the first five editions of The Hundred.
The new league plans to feature top players from Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands alongside leading talent from around the world. Each side will include seven local players and four marquee internationals.
Kaul said conversations with major cricketers are “ongoing”, though attracting big names will likely require salaries to be in the same ballpark as more established franchise competitions.
While Banerjee wouldn’t specify how much the ETPL was prepared to pay elite players, he said the league was in a position to ensure its franchises could “pay top dollar to get the top players”.
“The size of sports market is around US$500 billion,” he explained. “US$350 billion is football, and the rest of the sports in the world put together is US$150 billion.
“For US$350 billion football has 3.5 billion fans. Cricket is now 2.5 billion fans. In terms of volume growth year-on-year, cricket is the second largest sport in the world.
“We are looking at a region (Europe) which is the largest in terms of membership of the ICC. We’re looking at five iconic cities [to play in]. We want to make it a big deal and if you don’t pay players as per market norms, and if they don’t feel enticed to play, this will never become a big deal.
“If the franchisees feel that they have to pay a huge amount of money and will never break even, we won’t get their support. We are not taxing the franchisees with huge amounts of franchise fees.”
Broadcast reach over revenue
Banerjee and Kaul spoke to SportsPro shortly after the ETPL brought in Oakvale Capital to lead its capital raise. The London firm is already involved with other startup leagues, including the influencer-led Baller League and the European League of Football (ELF).
According to Banerjee, the ETPL hopes to announce new investors “in the next three to six months” but said “things could happen faster”.
For broadcasting, Kaul said reach rather than revenue will be the priority in the league’s first and second years.
“You need to invest when you’re building something big,” she said. “For us, the investment right now is going to be in terms of reach and not just restricted to the European market or the UK market.
“We will have players from all over the world. So even if you have two players from Nepal, it opens up the entire Nepal market. Or if you have players from Pakistan, Australia or South Africa, it starts opening up all the markets.”
When it comes to financial targets, the ETPL is forecasting net revenue of US$11.2 million at league level in 2026, rising to US$16.8 million in 2030. The average revenue for a franchise is projected to be US$2.4 million next year and US$5 million in 2030, assuming a team finishes fourth each season.
Global ambitions
This isn’t the first attempt at a European T20 franchise tournament. A notable failure was the Euro T20 Slam, which folded after postponing its inaugural season at short notice in 2019.
The ETPL, however, believes it can succeed where others have failed by tapping into what it sees as one of the fastest-growing cricket markets that boasts booming participation and significant commercial growth opportunities.
Franchises are also set to benefit from a generous revenue distribution model, with Banerjee saying the league aims to hand out at least “70 per cent of the common pool” to the six teams during the first three years.
“That keeps their revenues high, plus they can get their own sponsorship and merchandise revenues,” he added. “As per our business plan, in year three they should be in a break-even position.”
The ETPL may be European, but Banerjee describes it as a “truly global league” whose organisers aspire for it to become the world’s second-largest T20 competition behind the Indian Premier League (IPL). Future expansion has also been hinted at, with Italy a potential destination.
“For the ICC, or for anybody who’s prime motive is to increase the popularity of cricket, this tournament will create more awareness, give new talent a platform to express themselves, create an IP that is inspired by so many of the other big IPs that are already happening in cricket,” said Kaul.
“Any tournament which is going to promote cricket is going to be good news for the ICC.”
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