Eight’s the Charm: A Review of the European T20 Premier League Debut

The date was August 26, 2026. And finally, it’s lights, camera and action for the much-maligned European T20 franchise league!

New Ireland pacer Jai Moondra, fresh from his outstanding debut in the historic Ireland vs India T20I series in June, ran in to bowl the inaugural delivery of the European T20 Premier League (ETPL). Facing him was Dutch batter Max O’Dowd, who promptly dispatched the ball to the midwicket boundary, to kick things off in style at Voorburg!

For fans of European and Associate cricket, this was a highly significant event. After so many false dawns since 2019; the folding of the Euro T20 Slam under previous administrators, the multiple postponements plus the repeated failure of organisers to deliver on lofty promises, it was a big relief to finally witness the tournament get underway. Therefore, the new organisers, franchise owners as well as the national boards of Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond (KNCB) deserve a lot of credit for finally turning the idea of a pan-European T20 franchise league into reality.

Castle Rockers Triumph

Edinburgh Castle Rockers (ECR) put on a dominant display in the final to lift the inaugural ETPL trophy in style.

The Scottish franchise sent Belfast Wolves into bat after winning the toss on a pitch offering enough encouragement for the spinners. Tim Tector anchored the innings with a smooth 84 runs off 62 balls; but the Wolves could only manage 150/5 from their allotted 20 overs, courtesy of a disciplined bowling effort by the ECR attack. The team utilised a total of seven bowlers, with Trent Boult (2/21) and Mark Watt (1/21) being the pick of the bunch.

In response, it was a tale of contrasting fortunes for ECR’s opening duo. Ross Adair blazed away to a rapid start, while his partner Jon-Jon Smuts struggled to hit the ball off the square. Unfortunately Ross’ innings didn’t last long, dismissed for a quickfire 23 off 14 balls by his younger brother Mark in the 3rd over.

However, American batter Andries Gous ensured that the chase stayed on course, taking over from where Ross left off. He hit 15 runs off Mark Adair’s next over to keep the required run rate in check, before lofting a straight six off the last ball of the powerplay.

Gous eventually finished unbeaten with a blistering 90 off 61 balls, ensuring a comfortable seven wicket victory for the Rockers in the 19th over. He was ably supported by Brandon McMullen (19 off 12) in a sixty run partnership which broke the back of the chase. Gous’ efforts earned him the Player of the Match honours.

Talking Points

Fixture Loaded Summer for the Irish

Following a barren run of European summer fixtures for the last few years’, the ETPL is a godsend for Irish cricketers desperate to play more games of cricket. The Irish Cricket Podcast had previously reported about several Irish players privately expressing their frustrations at the lack of home summer fixtures.

Being a Full Member, Ireland is not part of the Cricket World Cup League 2 setup, which involves the eight highest ranked Associate nations on the ODI ladder. Furthermore, they also suffer from a paucity of fixtures against fellow Full Members, due to a combination of factors such as the conclusion of the ODI Super League in 2023, fixture inequality due to the vagaries of the Future Tours Programme (FTP), costs of hosting and struggles with ground availability.

While the construction of the Abbottstown cricket stadium will solve some of these issues from 2029, until that happens, the ETPL will help the Irish players fill in some of the fixture gaps with a set of meaningful and contextual T20 games against quality international cricketers.

Golden Oldies

David Wiese: The 41-year-old allrounder may have retired from international duty, but his performances definitely haven’t slowed down with age. Here, the grizzled Namibian allrounder had a sensational tournament with the ball, racking up 18 wickets at an average of 15.61 and an economy rate of 7.29. Wiese also contributed 135 runs with the bat, at a strike rate of 173.

Unfortunately, his franchise Rotterdam Dockers just missed making the playoffs, having finished equal on thirteen points with the top three teams but with an inferior run rate.

Faf du Plessis: Meanwhile, 42-year-old South African veteran du Plessis keeps churning out T20 franchise league runs in 2026, starring with the bat in SA20, Major League Cricket and now ETPL. Here, he captained the Rotterdam Dockers franchise and topped the run scoring charts, at the conclusion of the league stage, scoring 79 more runs than the second placed batter. Overall, du Plessis scored 449 runs at a phenomenal average of 56 with five fifties and a strike rate of 139, which won him the player of the tournament award.

Spotlight on Emerging Players

There are a plethora of T20 franchise leagues worldwide which consist solely of Full Member cricketers. Even the UAE based ILT20 league only has a paltry two or three Associates per starting XI.

By contrast, the single best thing about the ETPL is the genuine opportunity it offers to emerging players to showcase their skills on a global stage. The tournament featured a heavy contingent of Scottish, Dutch and Irish cricketers, as well as other Associate players, which provided the tournament with a genuine European feel.

Apart from the aforementioned Wiese, the Irish trio of Matthew Humphreys, Mark Adair and Craig Young found success with the ball in hand, grabbing 15, 13 and 12 wickets respectively in the tournament. Jack Jarvis and Ali Khan also enjoyed good outings.

On the batting front, Brandon McMullen, Bas de Leede and Andries Gous were the clear standouts. As for Full Member representatives, du Plessis, James Vince amassed a bagful of runs, while Michael Bracewell and Anrich Nortje grabbed a bevy of wickets.

Not So Golden Oldies

On the other hand, big name Full Member superstars such as Daryll Mitchell, Steven Smith and Ravichandran Ashwin failed to live up to their pre-tournament billing.

Daryl Mitchell endured a particularly dreadful campaign with the bat, averaging 16 at a strike rate of 108.57. Australian legend Smith had a similarly forgetful campaign and was largely anonymous for Amsterdam Flames. The 37-year-old Smith harbours ambitions of participating in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, but his performance here left a lot to be desired and called into question his place in the modern T20 format.

Former India spinner, Ashwin started the tournament poorly but slowly improved his bowling returns later on. Although, he lacked penetration and failed to pick up many wickets, Ashwin kept things tight with a superb economy rate of 5.58. And crucially, he brought much needed eyeballs from the Indian TV market for the ETPL.

Play of the Tournament

2, 1W, 1, 3NB, 1NB, 1, OUT, 1NB OUT, 1OUT, OUT

The 10-ball over that had everything! At the tailend of the Glasgow Cosmics innings in game no. 12, Amsterdam Flames allrounder Bas de Leede bowled an absolutely bonkers over which consisted of one wide, three no balls and four wickets in four deliveries including a hattrick of run outs.

The late flurry of dismissals helped the Flames restrict the Cosmics to below 180 runs on a batting friendly pitch. And afterwards, talented Canadian youngster Yuvraaj Samra blazed an innings of 73 runs off 32 balls to take the Flames to a comfortable seven-wicket victory.

Low Crowds and Future Sustainability

For all the positives outlined previously, there remain some lingering concerns about the competition’s long-term sustainability. As the above photo by Emerging Cricket’s Dave Sihra highlights, crowd attendance for most games was worryingly low.

Sihra attended the two games on September 17, 2026 at Malahide. His key takeaways were that the “standard of cricket was high and it was very watchable. Plus, there was a prominent social media presence and a heavy rotation of commentators for the games. However, most of the focus seemed to be on generating a good TV product rather than getting more crowd numbers in.”

The same dynamic was evident in Voorburg, with the Dutch leg plagued by low crowds with the exception of the opening and closing day of matches. Additionally, there was no straightforward way of watching the games online in Netherlands; which is not a good look for a competition trying to establish itself in the European market. By contrast, the matches were broadcasted by TNT Sports in Ireland and Scotland and the tournament received some press coverage in the papers.

Initial indications are that the organisers and franchise owners are satisfied with the TV and streaming viewership figures generated from the vast Indian market, no doubt helped by the participation of the high-profile Ashwin. While this is encouraging, the main focus needs to be on growing the game in Europe and drawing in new attendees locally, to make the tournament sustainable over the long term.

Speaking to the media, Cricket Ireland Chairman Brian MacNeice suggested as such, highlighting the need to take the ETPL to Scottish and Northern Irish venues in the future, both of which didn’t host any games this edition.

Only time will tell what happens in the future, but for a tournament concept which seemed destined to remain a distant pipe dream; it was a satisfactory debut in many respects!

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