Cricket 365 live stream 2021: How to watch T20 strike League in Darwin

Northern Territory’s new Cricket 365 program could become world cricket’s T20 breeding ground - and it starts with the T20 Strike League.

Cricket 365 launched on Sunday with two matches across Darwin and Palmerston. Ryan McElduff with his unique bowling action. Picture: Che Chorley

A winter Twenty20 league featuring all eight Big Bash clubs plus teams from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and New Zealand could be staged in Darwin in the next five years.

Northern Territory Cricket wants to establish world cricket’s first T20 feeder competition in what would become a global breeding ground for the next generation of BBL and Indian Premier League superstars.

The model would be similar to Major League Baseball’s Arizona Fall League, where 180 of America’s brightest youngsters play about 30 off-season games to accelerate their growth from amateurs to professionals.

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Cricket Victoria has registered Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades academy teams to play in next month’s T20 Strike League, which will be live streamed by News Corp, and there is hope rival BBL clubs will follow.

That tournament is the climax to ‘Cricket 365’, which is NT Cricket’s new 10-week program aimed at capitalising on Australia’s unique ability to play cricket all year round.

“We’ve been working really closely with Cricket Australia and all the state associations to build a program and that has crystalised in Cricket 365,” NT chief executive Joel Morrison told News Corp.

WATCH LIVE: News Corp is streaming the T20 tournament from 15-27 August

“Every single state and CA can plug into Cricket 365 out of season to leverage it in such a way that helps develop its program.”

Morrison said players vying for the last few BBL contracts could get on turf in June, July and August to showcase their skills instead of training indoors when it was cold and raining back home.

Cricket New South Wales has sent a handful of contracted players to participate, including Test batsman Kurtis Patterson, Chris Tremain, Matthew Gilkes and Jack Edwards.

Test batsman Kurtis Patterson will spend his winter playing cricket in the NT.

Adelaide Strikers weapon Jake Weatherald is also onboard.

Morrison said the clay content in the pitch at DXC Arena in Darwin was between Adelaide and Perth conditions, delivering a hard and fast deck prone to high scores.

Interim CV boss Nick Cummins has long been a believer in playing Top End winter games and was eager to for the Stars and Gades to be involved.

Untried kids who pull on the green or red would do so in the hope of one day earning a summer contract.

“In theory guys would’ve played 30 or 40 games under the Stars or Renegades banner before they play for the Stars or Renegades,” Morrison said.

“This has the capacity to grow. It may well be in five or six years every single Big Bash team is playing in a feeder tournament.

Tom O’Connell (Stars) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (Renegades) have signed on. Picture: Tim Carrafa

“Or it might be that Cricket 365 has a longer component of T20 and you have the Big Bash teams plus a team from India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and this becomes the breeding ground for young talent to go on to the international scene or the IPL or Big Bash.

“The big gap we have in the market at the moment is you have these elite T20 competitions around the world, but there isn’t any feeder tournament.

“There’s not a system that exists in world cricket at the moment that has a layer below the elite domestic T20 tournaments.”

Travel complications stemming from the global pandemic heightened the urgency to get Cricket 365 out of the blocks this year.

The 10-week block includes a 50-over series (June 20-July 25), the Top End Series (NT Strike team versus CA XI in a best-of-three one-dayers) and the Strike League T20 tournament (August 15-27).

News subscribers will be able to exclusively stream the T20 tournament action from 15-27 August through the app, website and mobile platforms.

Originally published as Cricket 365 live stream 2021: How to watch T20 strike League in Darwin