Ireland, Scotland, and the Netherlands are pooling their cricket markets into one league. Smaller countries don't need the big three to build something real.
The smartest move a small cricket country can make right now might be to stop waiting for India, England, or Australia to put them on the schedule.
A new tournament called the European T20 Premier League (ETPL) is making exactly that bet. It brings together teams from Ireland, Scotland, and the Netherlands, representing cities like Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. On the surface, it looks like a regional cricket competition. But the business logic underneath it is worth examining carefully.
Ireland, Scotland, and the Netherlands are each relatively modest cricket markets. On their own, any one of them would struggle to build a league that attracts serious broadcaster interest, meaningful sponsorship, or a large enough fanbase to be commercially sustainable. The audiences are too scattered, the fixture lists too thin.
Put all three together and the picture changes. More cities, more supporters, more matches, and a combined commercial footprint that is meaningfully larger than the sum of its parts. Think of it like three small shops combining into one much bigger shopping centre. The formula is simple: small markets, shared competition, and pooled commercial rights can create a potentially much bigger business.
Small markets plus shared competition plus pooled commercial rights equals a potentially much bigger business.
This matters well beyond European cricket. Smaller cricket countries have long relied on getting fixtures against the full members, particularly India, England, and Australia, because those matches generate far more money and attention than anything else on their calendar. The problem is that those opportunities are rare, and the big three have their own commercial priorities that rarely put smaller nations at the top of the list.
That dependency is a structural weakness. If your revenue model depends on the generosity of larger nations' scheduling decisions, you are not really in control of your own future.
The question should really be, "What can we build together and stop our reliance on the full members?"
The ETPL is an attempt to answer that question directly. Instead of lobbying for a spot on a bigger nation's tour calendar, Ireland, Scotland, and the Netherlands are building their own commercial platform together.
The ETPL still has to prove itself. Attracting consistent audiences, securing broadcasters, and landing sponsors across several seasons is a different challenge from simply launching a tournament. Many leagues have started with genuine ambition and faded once the novelty wore off or the money ran short.
But if it does survive and grow, the lesson it offers to other smaller cricket nations is concrete: you do not always have to get bigger on your own. Sometimes the most practical path forward is to find two or three countries in a similar position and build something together that none of you could build alone.
Sometimes the smartest way for small markets to compete is to become one big market.
For cricket administrators in associate nations, that reframe is worth sitting with. The dependency on full members is not inevitable. It is a choice, and there may be better ones available.
