Editing T20 Blast (section)

=== Twenty20 Cup ===
The first official Twenty20 Cup matches were played on 13 June 2003. The first season of Twenty20 in England was a success, with the Surrey Lions defeating the Warwickshire Bears by nine wickets in the final to win the first Twenty20 Cup Final. On 15 July 2004 Middlesex versus Surrey (the first Twenty20 Cup game to be held at [[Lord's]]) attracted a crowd of 26,500, the largest attendance for any county cricket game other than a one-day final since 1953. <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12389/3657396/ali-backs-twenty20|title=Ali backs Twenty20|date=10 June 2008|website=Skysports|access-date=16 November 2021}}</ref> The tournament saw six different winners in its seven years.

By the end of 2009, the ECB had decided to implement a larger competition for the T20 format of the game. The Twenty20 English Premier League was a proposed cricket league to be run by the ECB consisting of 18 county teams and two overseas teams divided into two divisions with promotion and relegation.<ref name=bbc16jul08>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7510080.stm New-look English Twenty20 agreed], BBC Sport, 16 July 2008; Retrieved 17 March 2018</ref><ref name=ci16jul08>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/361423.html ECB unveils new Twenty20 tournament], CricInfo, 16 July 2008; Retrieved 17 March 2018</ref> The proposal was influenced by the success of the [[Indian Premier League]] and by [[Allen Stanford]] who had organised the [[Stanford Super Series]] in the Caribbean. After the collapse of Stanford's series, the proposals were scrapped. Instead of a modified 40 over league, the [[Clydesdale Bank 40]] was implemented.