Twenty20 is taking off. All over the world players are swarming to participate in big competitions to represent big clubs for big money.

Not only has the IPL attracted big crowds, but has earned huge amounts of money, reportedly earning one billion dollars in its first two years.

Within five years, the IPL could be the biggest sporting competition in the world. Through this the Champions League has been established, and this provides an opportunity for domestic players from all over the world to participate in what will be one of the biggest competitions in the world.

Domestic cricket has been dead for years. As a Queenslander, the Sheffield Shield has been dead ever since we won the competition in 1994/95. Before now uncapped domestic players haven’t had the chance to play under big crowds in either India or Australia, and playing in pressure environment will lead to development of Australian players for Tests and one dayers.

T20 has already established itself in lesser known cricketing countries, such as Zimbabwe and Canada, and through this cricket will be able to expand Test playing nations and introduce better international competitions.

Last year the inaugural Champions League was held in India. In its first year the competition didn’t perform to its potential with little coverage in Australia and low crowds due to poor performances by the Indian teams. What the competitions did though was find the world’s new superstars and provided experience under pressure for the domestic players.

Expansion is what is needed for this competition to really kick off and with more games played in home countries this competition could really become a world league.

About a year ago, the IPL announced its plans to expand to a ten team competition. The growth of the game is forcing the ICC to create an IPL window where no other cricket is played, and the whole world can tune in to what could be the world biggest competition. Pune and Kochi have been announced as the two new teams.

What effects will this have on Australia and world cricket?

This will and has lead to Australia expanding its own competition to eight teams with Geelong/West Melbourne, Gold Coast, West Sydney and Newcastle the prime candidates for the two spots. Mostly the response to this has been positive, but people don’t realise the problems it could have for the Ford Ranger Cup, Sheffield Shield and the history these competitions have had.

This could lead to a drop in support for these teams. This could be a minor problem but managed properly this can be avoided. Expansion in 2011/12 will also lead to forced availability for Aussie Test players for the competition. This will guarantee increased crowds and help maintain the quality of competition expansion can destroy. Through this I would like to see a trans-Tasman competition established involving three teams from New Zealand.

This would create an 11 team competition, where each team will play each other once, with a four team finals series. The Big Bash has already overtaken the A-League and NRL in terms of average attendances, but with the establishment of this new competition like the other codes, cricket can reestablish its culture and proud support for its teams that was seen during the Sheffield Shield glory years. This will lead to memberships and rivalries that will help the game prosper in this country, having a real week to week competition.

World cricket will be affected by this through it being forced to change its playing windows. I believe that there should be less ODI’s and a similar amounts of T20s and Tests on the calendar to make way for the IPL, Champions League and other domestic competitions.

Test cricket will have to be made into a World Series to combat its decline. This World Series that ICC announced it was discussing late last year would consist of two home and away (or just at home or just away) games against each playing country over a two year period with the exception of the Ashes and other massive competitions which would consists of a four or five Test series in the home country.

This would lead to a semi final and finals series to determine the number one ranking and the world champions for that year. This could exist instead of the Test World Cup which was previously predicted to encourage support. Pakistan would play at UAE or another neighboring country until problems clear.

The competition would run like this:

Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, West Indies, England, New Zealand, South Africa each play each other four times over two years.

Points awarded:

Series win – 8
Tied series- 4
Win by one innings- 10
Win outright- 6
Win by one innings (draw) – 4
Tie – 4
Loss by one innings (Draw) – 3
Loss outright or by one innings or series loss – 0

This format would encourage aggressive play and lead to less draws and boring Test matches. This would also lead to more attention placed on Tests against Bangladesh when teams are leading, crowds may increase in expectation of an innings win. Through this Bangladesh will develop with consistent exposure at Test level, and countries will become more interested in watching matches played by their team.

Through this there will be at full strength, no rest like Andrew Strauss against Bangladesh last month, and teams will be competition to win something not just for rankings. This will also lead to at least six Test matches at home each year for each country.

Australia will have 10 in the year when they host the Ashes. This calendar will be fitted in through the reduction of ODI’s played yearly. ODI’s must be kept because they still draw reasonable crowds and the World Cup is still the ultimate goal for most cricketers. One Day cricket is also the way forward for developing nations.

With the windows to be established for T20 from mid April-the end of May (6 weeks) including: From late November to mid December, approximately 3 weeks to 3.5 weeks for Big Bash, NZ provincial, RSA provincial, etc.

A third window for the Pakistan, Sri Lankan, English and West Indian provincial competitions must be determined.

Cricket has a very promising future through the development of Test and T20 windows, but what the ICC decides to do is unknown. They have announced a World Series but its format could involve anything, one thing that is for sure though is that cricket will expand and through T20 to become one of the world’s biggest and most watched sports.