Eoin Morgan welcomes changes to English cricket: 'People are falling out of love with the game'

England one-day international (ODI) captain Eoin Morgan has revealed his support for the proposed city-based Twenty20 tournament by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

The T20 tournament, which is currently unnamed, is set for 2020 and will feature eight new regional teams who will play 36 games over a 38-day summer window.

ECB chief Tom Harrison recently said that the tournament will try and tap into a family audience, stating that "we have to think differently." Morgan is in agreement with Harrison, who believes these new changes should have happened a long time ago.

"Change is always difficult but I don't think this is change," Morgan said, as quoted on ESPN. "It probably should have happened a while ago. We're always going to have the same cricket fans unless we do something differently."

"It's a huge responsibility in growing the game. People are falling out of love with the game because it's not engaging enough with the public."

One proposed feature of the new tournament is that all games will be televised with significant free-to-air exposure, something that would only increase the popularity of the sport and get more people into cricket.

"There's an intention to have a lot of games on free-to-air, which is a huge part of it," he added. "One of the biggest turning points in my generation has been the 2005 Ashes. To have a lot of people, especially in and around London, who aren't necessarily into cricket talking about cricket is awesome, and to get that back it's going to have be as big a change as taking cricket to free-to-air."

The 30-year-old also mentioned how the tournament, expected to be an annual event, would increase exposure for cricketers themselves, especially when the high-profile events such as the Ashes and Champions Trophy are not going on.

"You cannot wait four years for an Ashes series or two years for a Champions Trophy to engage with the public," he said. "It's got to be continuous. So creating that opportunity is what Tom [Harrison] was talking about."