Although its architects will deny the charge of plagiarism, the similarities between the radical new Twenty20 competition leaked yesterday and the Indian Premier League (IPL) are so clear that it seems the ground-breaking tournament has simply been transported thousands of miles from Bombay to London.

They emphasise a thick spread of quality, with auctions and nine (rather than eight) teams based at the biggest grounds, constructed from the best players from the 18 counties and overseas. Proponents prefer to speak of partnerships centred on grounds and clubs, yet it is just as easy to think of them as city-based franchises.

Importantly, the event will be more compact than the IPL, which lasted the best (or worst) part of seven weeks before Rajasthan Royals won the final. If Boots Nottingham, for example, were to win here in 2010 they would take only 25 days. And, after 14 matches, they would be exhausted.

In a different slot, the New T20, as it would be called, is being projected as a complement rather than a rival to the IPL. The organisers will save themselves a lot of tedious politicking with Lalit Modi and his friends on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) if they can make friends early.

But the tone of the early part of the document written by Keith Bradshaw, the MCC chief executive, and David Stewart, the Surrey chairman, is that England must act quickly to ensure that India, already the biggest market for the world game, does not gain a monopoly on the most lucrative staging of the format.

The document reads: “Significant IPL earning potential for players means that it may be a threat to English cricket, its national team, players and clubs. The BCCI have recognised there is a market for a second ‘premier league T20' tournament. The BCCI aim to have two IPL seasons in the same year from 2011. English cricket must act swiftly.

“New T20 can learn from and build upon the IPL, the Twenty20 Champions League and the World Twenty20 to create a new T20 that grows interest and is financially successful. There is an opportunity for one further major T20 tournament globally. Launching the tournament in England represents a once-in-a-generation chance.”

A second global event on top of the Allen Stanford match being staged each year until 2012, worth $1 million (about £500,000) per player to the winning team, and the official internationals themselves, which are limited to seven a year for each country, makes the emergence of specialist players inevitable.

For somebody such as Graham Napier, the man of the moment from Essex who will surely play in the IPL next year, the route to riches must lie in the new format rather than the four-day game, where he is on the fringes of the county team. How Adam Hollioake must wish that he was ten years younger.

Fifty per cent of England players have said that they would consider retiring early from international cricket to make their fortune in the IPL. If they can make as big a fortune in an English equivalent, staged to avoid clashes with the international schedule, they may not feel they need to sacrifice a Test career.

Counties, however, will take an awful lot of persuading to back the Bradshaw/Stewart model, which they have put together as a discussion document after interest from City firms. They say that their figures are sound and that money would be from new sources prepared to come into the game.

The rest of the county programme would still include the 18 existing teams. They will play, as now, in a four-day County Championship, although not necessarily of 16 matches, a 50-overs tournament and a domestic Twenty20 on Friday evenings. “The clear aim is to grow the overall revenues into cricket and ensure there are no financial losers,” the document says.

The proposal

——Teams will be based at the nine Grade A grounds: Lord's, Oval, Trent Bridge, Edgbaston, Headingley, Old Trafford, Riverside, Rose Bowl and Cardiff

—It will last for 25 days, with each side playing 12 games followed by semi-finals and a final

—Squads will be an optimal size of 15 or 16 players - three or four from overseas - with a fixed salary cap of £1.5 million

—At least three players must be aged under 21 and a minimum of 12 must have trained in England or Wales for at least three years from 15 to 21 - these can include the young players

How 2010 could look

Domestic

June to July

—New English Premier League over 25 days, plus semi-finals and a final

—50-overs competition at weekends through season

—Twenty20 Cup on Friday evenings through season

—Four-day County Championship matches in midweek through season

England

April

—Champions Trophy in the West Indies

May to June

—Two Tests (Headingley, another venue tbc) and three one-day matches (Edgbaston, Trent Bridge, Bristol) against Bangladesh

June

—Five one-day matches (Cardiff, Rose Bowl, Oval, Lord's, Old Trafford) against Australia

July to September

—Four Tests (Lord's, Trent Bridge, Edgbaston, Oval) and five one-day matches (Rose Bowl, Oval, Headingley, Riverside, Lord's) against West Indies

—Twenty20 internationals tba

Batting for the opposition

Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire chief executive: “Firstly, I must say that I'm not comfortable with any solution that isn't 18-county based. The chief executives have met twice recently and had a good hard look at proposals and at no stage has a nine-ground solution been discussed. The key point is that people from Gloucestershire and Somerset are not going to travel to Cardiff or Hampshire to watch these games. The best solution is to have the 18 counties playing Twenty20 on a Friday evening in June with all the best players, including England ones available.”

Mark Newton, Worcestershire chief executive: “I'm absolutely surprised. We've had two chief executives' meetings in the past two weeks where we had a deep discussion about the future of Twenty20 and none of this was mentioned by anybody. This would disenfranchise a lot of supporters. Don't forget that it's county cricket that drove the one-day revolution in the 1970s and the counties that drove Twenty20. I'd suggest the counties know what they are doing. The joy of Twenty20 is in the local rivalries, why spoil that? I hope this is not just a reaction to the IPL drawn up on the back of an envelope but as I haven't seen this blueprint I can't comment on the specifics.”

Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire director of cricket: “I'm sure we can do something better than we've got involving all 18 counties. The non-Test match grounds will be really wary of something like this. I feel that the ECB should throw a lot of money at the county championship. The prize-money has stayed the same for a long time and maybe, instead of being £100,000, that should rise to £500,000, otherwise there's a danger of everyone looking towards Twenty20.”

Rod Bransgrove, chairman of Rose Bowl plc and one of the men behind the proposals: “I know what it's about and I have no comment.”