The ECB’s 100-ball tournament, set for a July-August 2020 introduction, will not have six-ball overs. 

The ECB confirmed on Thursday that the overs will be divided into 10 balls from each side – with nine changes until the end of an innings.

Each bowler will be handed 20 balls in total. The captain of each side will decide whether one bowler will bowl the full 10 balls from an end or to split them up between two bowlers in five-ball chunks.

According to an article published in The Times, the new format was decided by an ECB steering group, chaired by Clare Connor, the director of women’s cricket, who was the decider on how the 100 balls would be split up.

Originally, the innings was going to be split into 15 six-ball overs and one 10-ball over, but this was rejected by the Professional Cricketers Association because players believed that a ten-ball over would be unfair to the bowler.

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Rumours of the 100-ball competition idea being scrapped and replaced by a city-based T20 tournament were ignored by the governing body. The ECB believes the format will attract new audiences — particularly families — who think the current formats are too long and complicated.

Although the format has been agreed on by the governing groups in favour of it, the tournament is still under consultation.

The tournament would be set to run during July-August, with each game anticipated to run for a maximum of two-and-a-half hours. Matches have been penciled in to start at 6:30pm and finish by 9pm.

Photo: Northampton win Natwest Blast 2016, Backpagepix