The Big Bash League, which will begin in the 2011/12 Australian summer, will be contested by eight city-based franchises - including two each from Melbourne and Sydney.
It succeeds Australia's previous Twenty20 Big Bash which ran from 2005, featured the traditional six state teams - New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia - with occasional participation from overseas players, such as Hampshire's Michael Lumb and Lancashire's Sajid Mahmood in 2010/11.
However, the new franchises are able to sign players from any state, and field two international players per team.