European T20 Premier League
European Twenty20 cricket league
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The European T20 Premier League (ETPL) is an upcoming professional twenty20 cricket league in Europe. It will be organised by Cricket Scotland, Cricket Ireland, and Royal Dutch Cricket Association, and will be played during summer each year from 2026. The League will comprise six teams across Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland[a], and the Netherlands.[1][2][3]
 | |
| Countries | |
|---|---|
| Administrator | |
| Format | T20 cricket |
| First edition | 2026 |
| Next edition | 2026 |
| Tournament format | Round-robin league and playoffs |
| Number of teams | 6 |
| Website | etplofficial |
History
Euro T20 Slam
In March 2019, Cricket Scotland, Cricket Ireland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association officially announced a sanctioned cross-border European Twenty20 professional franchise tournament, the Euro T20 Slam,[4] originally for six teams and for which an initial player draft was held. The organiser, which was also responsible for the Canadian Global T20 tournament, announced a number of postponements in the following years, but a combination of organisational issues and the COVID-19 pandemic effectively rendered the tournament abandoned without holding one season.
European T20 Premier League
In January 2025 it was confirmed that a broadly similar venture,[5] again with the same three boards and privately funded, but organised by a committee to be put together by the three national boards themselves, and with six initial teams, had received International Cricket Council sanction to begin play in July 2025, effectively replacing the defunct Euro T20 Slam branding with a new European T20 Premier League.[6][7][5] Scheduled for July and early August 2025, the event avoids most of the southern hemisphere and Caribbean franchise tournaments, including the Indian Premier League. Bollywood entertainer Abhishek Bachchan was announced as part owner of the league at the same time as its sanctioning.[8] The tournament was postponed again to 2026.[1]
Format
The ETPL is expected to be played in a single round-robin format, where each team faces every other team once during the league stage. The top four teams at the end of the group stage qualify for the playoffs, which are planned to follow the Page playoff system.
The league is expected to operate under International Cricket Council regulations. In the group stage, teams are awarded two points for a win, one point for a no-result, and zero points for a loss. If a match ends in a tie after both sides have completed their allotted overs, a super over is used to decide the winner.
Teams in the league stage are ranked based on:
- Higher number of points
- If equal, better net run rate
- If equal, higher number of wins
- If equal, fewer losses
- If still equal, results of head-to-head matches
In the playoffs, if a match has no result, a super over is used to determine the winner. If a super over cannot be played or also ends in a tie, the team that finished higher in the league stage standings is declared the winner.
Teams
Current teams
In January 2025, only the names of the host cities were announced.[9] The following 21 January, the ETPL announced the first three franchise owners in Sydney, which were Amsterdam Flames, Edinburgh Castle Rockers, and Irish Wolves.[10][11][12] Later on 20 April, Glasgow Mugafians was announced as one of the franchises.[13] A few days later, on 28 April, the franchise rebranded it's social media to Glasgow Cosmic.[14] On 30 April 2026, Jonty Rhodes, Faf du Plessis, and Heinrich Klaasen were announced as the owners of Rotterdam Dockers.[15][16] On 11 May 2026, the final team was announced as the Dublin Guardians, with a Rahul Dravid led consortium as their owners.[17]
| Team | City | Home ground | Debut | Captain | Head coach | Owner(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam Flames |  Amsterdam |
VRA Cricket Ground | 2026 | Mitchell Marsh | Steve Waugh, Jamie Dwyer, Tim Thomas | |
| Dublin Guardians |  Dublin |
Malahide Cricket Ground | Ravichandran Ashwin | Rahul Dravid | ||
| Edinburgh Castle Rockers |  Edinburgh |
The Grange Club | Mitchell Santner | Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills | ||
| Glasgow Cosmic | Glasgow |
The Grange Club | Tansha Batra, Chris Gayle | |||
| Irish Wolves |  Belfast |
Stormont Cricket Ground | Glenn Maxwell | Rohan Lund, Glenn Maxwell | ||
| Rotterdam Dockers | Rotterdam |
VRA Cricket Ground | Faf du Plessis | Jonty Rhodes, Faf du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen |