Ahead of the inaugural season of the European T20 Premier League (ETPL), co-owner Abhishek Bachchan has made it clear that the new competition is not there to challenge football or other sports for attention in Europe. Instead, the Bollywood actor and sports entrepreneur said the league wants to create its own place in the continent's sporting landscape.

“The European T20 Premier League is not looking to compete with football or other established sports for audience attention but aims to carve out its own space in the continent’s sporting landscape,” Bachchan said.

Speaking about this, he also explained why he believes the project has real potential. “To be blunt, I wouldn’t be sitting in front of you if I didn’t think that there was potential and I didn’t see a market over there. It’s an exciting new market for us. There is a huge potential in Europe to follow cricket, not just with the traditional already playing cricket nations in Europe. I think that it’s the dawn of a new horizon for a sport in Europe and I have immense confidence that in time to come Europe is going to have a very, very healthy cricketing market,” Bachchan said.

 

ETPL to start from 26 August featuring Six Teams

The ETPL is an ICC-sanctioned franchise T20 competition and is a joint venture involving the cricket boards of Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. It features six city-based teams which includes Amsterdam Flames, Rotterdam Dockers, Dublin Guardians, Belfast Wolves, Edinburgh Castle Rockers and Glasgow Cosmic. Some of the biggest stars including Rahul Dravid, Steve Waugh, Glenn Maxwell, Faf du Plessis, Jonty Rhodes and others are involved as owners or stakeholders.

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The inaugural season will start from 26 August to 20 September 2026. Matches will be played first at Sportpark Westvliet in Voorburg, Netherlands, before moving to Malahide Cricket Ground in Ireland for the later stages and the final. The tournament brings together international stars alongside leading European players in a double round-robin format followed by playoffs.

Abhishek Bachchan, who has previous experience owning teams in kabaddi and football in India, has repeatedly said this is a long-term approach. The focus is on building a loyal core of fans rather than trying to displace dominant sports and allowing cricket to grow organically in a market that has long lacked a major multi-nation franchise T20 league.