European Cricket League Founder Daniel Weston has revealed that the ECL plans to expand to a 30 team extravaganza in 2022.
Weston could not conceal his excitement as he told Emerging Cricket Live of the massive interest in the competition, as indicated by several exciting new additions from Southern Europe in recent weeks including Croatia, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria.
“There’s going to be another nine countries added to the ECL in 2022 in the not too distant future, to go with the five that have already been announced. This will take us to 29 domestic champions and the reigning King (the 2021 ECL champions) in 2022. So, a 30-team format,” revealed Weston.
“Projects like this are all about inclusion and we want to include more and more and more.”
Following the postponement of ECL20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the second staging of the European Cricket League - ECL21 - will take place in May and June in Spain. 16 champion teams will take part including sides from England, Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands.
In an extensive interview, Weston also spoke about the European Cricket Network’s anti-corruption efforts and measures. He also reflected on the 2019 European Cricket League and future plans for the Dream11 European Cricket Series, currently underway in Stockholm. Next week, the Dream11 European Cricket Series travels to St. Gallen in Switzerland.
Speaking about Dream11 European Cricket Series, Weston added: “We essentially don’t have a day free on our calendar where we don’t have cricket streamed on ecn.cricket from now until mid-December.”
