New ECB Twenty20 tournament is what the UK 'has been crying out for' says Michael Vaughan

Michael Vaughan believes the newly proposed city-based Twenty20 tournament by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has been a long time coming for English cricket.

The new tournament is set for the summer of 2020 and is expected to feature eight new regional teams who will play 36 games over a 38-day period.

ECB chief executive Tom Harrison had previously maintained that the tournament, yet to be named, will try to attract family audiences and engage British youth.

Former England captain Vaughan agrees with the target audience and credits Australia's Big Bash League, which the new tournament was modelled on.

"Cricket Australia deserve a lot of credit," he said, as quoted on CricBuzz. "They were clever. And I hate actually giving any Australians that kind of tag of being clever."

"But a few years ago, when they created the Big Bash, they fundamentally sat down and said, 'We have to put on the product of entertainment for the family.' The cricket matches, the 20 overs, the 40 overs, that you're going to see a secondary to what the family are going to be entertained by.

"So, the activation of the fan was their No. 1 principle. It was making sure that a family of four, that they go down to the arenas, they get entertained. 'We got entertained by all sorts, and, by the way, Aaron Finch hit a couple of sixes as well', which is exactly the way to go about it. Sixty-seven per cent of their ticket sales are through families, so they triggered the market absolutely right."

While there have been debates on whether the new tournament should go ahead, with counties like Essex and Middlesex voting against it, Vaughan states that England are a bit behind when it comes to T20 cricket and that changes in English cricket were needed, agreeing with the viewpoint of limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan.

"T20 came to the market just over 10 years ago," Vaughan added. "We actually invented it in this country and then allowed all the other countries to make a load of money out of it. So, we are just a little bit behind the game. In 2020, we will see the launch of a new eight-team tournament in the United Kingdom, which is what it has been crying out for."

"I don't think we were brave enough to deliver what India have done. It is quite difficult to change the thought process of 18 counties, very difficult to turn it around. They've just managed to do that, which has taken a lot of time."