'We foresee a lot more involvement from former India cricketers in coming years'

Despite its inception in 2017 with some of the biggest stars in international cricket participating, T10 cricket is still a growing format. The first of its kind, as a league format, The T10 was played in Abu Dhabi five winters back, before the tournament was officially sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) a year later. The Abu Dhabi T10 League has since grown in stature and stands as the most prominent tournament in the fastest format of the game. As the league continues to show a rampant rise, Rajeev Khanna, who has recently been added to the T10 League as the Chief Operating Officer, revealed the organisation's ambitious plans to spread its wings, planning as many as three more leagues across the globe.

Speaking to Hindustan Times in an exclusive interview, Rajeev talked about the ongoing sixth season of the Abu Dhabi T10 league, the competition it faces from another new format of the game, The Hundred and whether he expects participation from active Indian cricketers in the near future. Here are excerpts...

This will be the sixth season of the Abu Dhabi T10 league. Is there something different you want to achieve or see achieving?

Yes this is the sixth season of the Abu Dhabi T10 league but for me it is the first season because I recently joined. What I would like to... I mean, from my experience with 15 years in the IPL and other different leagues across the globe, what I want to see is how we engage the fans, which is of top priority and how we bring the crowd into the stadium. It's a new format and still not many people know about it. Also how we promote and market this league because it's one of the fantastic cricket products that has come across in recent times. I should say kudos to Shaji Ul Mulk who conceptualised this format and did this for six seasons. One the big thing is that some of best players in the world playing in this league

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You have been actively involved in IPL and with IPL teams. What are the things you would want to carry from your experience in IPL to the T10 league?

As I mentioned, one is definitely fan engagement. Because in IPL, there is a lot of effort made by the league and the franchises in this aspect, in terms of having an inclusivity of the fans. Second is, the teams that we have in the T10 league how do they grow their fan base in their respective cities. Also, the overall fan experience in terms of when someone comes to the stadium to watch the game, how do you give the fan a 'wow' moment.

Have you so far noticed any differences between the two leagues? If you could mention a few...

Being this the fastest form of cricket, I see this format being a good feeder or rather a good starting point for getting stars for T20 cricket. I believe that there is room for all kinds of formats and they can all coexist.

Do you see, maybe in the near future, some level of participation from active Indian cricketers, which could add to more popularity of the league?

As you can see, we have some of the big-name players from India who have recently retired. And we foresee that there will be a lot more who will be participating in the league, in the coming years, from India among the retired ones. We understand that the current Indian cricketers can't be participating but people who have played cricket at the highest level would definitely be involved.

And what future do you see for the T10 in terms of popularity format-wise and international teams slowly picking it up? Cricket now has another format in The Hundred as well.

Most definitely, yes. The reason being that we have actually gone global now and I see a very bright future for T10 cricket internationally. We are now doing five different T10 leagues now across the globe. The Sri Lanka board has actually endorsed and given us the rights to host the T10 league which we will be starting in June next year. We also have a few things lined up in Zimbabwe and one in Europe which we are planning. So yes, I do see a lot of scope and possibility.

Over the past couple of years, some of the senior players have been advocating for T10 in the Olympics, albeit with no positive response from concerned authorities. ICC is hoping to get cricket included in the 2028 Olympics. But do you feel T10 should be that format? Why?

I personally feel T10 is the best possible format for the Olympics. The only reason being that it is fast-paced, finishing in 90 minutes. There is no other sport in the Olympics that finishes within 90 minutes. And you can schedule 3-4 games in a day.

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