MARK Stewart says the Greater Manchester League’s Twenty20 competition is an improvement on what he experienced in the Bolton League.

The League’s all-time record wicket-taker says T20 was not a popular competition.

But Bolton League secretary Ray Taylor backed the new version of the competition being introduced this season and highlighted how Stewart’s club Greenmount did not help by giving T20 no support in the last three years.

Greenmount left the Bolton League at the end of last season to join the GML who kick off their T20 competition today.

Stewart said in his weekly column in the Bury Times: “T20 never caught on in the Bolton League because the matches were in midweek and they resisted the move to introduce coloured kits and the like.

“Greenmount had a few games where the teams didn’t even bother turning up. But done right it should attract big crowds.”

On the GML’s T20 competition, he said: “They have done the right thing by scheduling the games on a Friday night, and the decision to allow coloured kits and give every team a nickname just adds a bit of flavour to it.

“Spectators want to see batsmen try to hit the ball as hard and as far as they can. Add to that the loud music and a party atmosphere and it really ticks all the boxes.

“The Lancashire League have already introduced something like this and I went down to watch a game at Ramsbottom and it was packed.”

The Bolton League have changed the format of their T20 competition which starts from next Friday.

It also has coloured kits, music and Friday night games and League secretary Ray Taylor said Stewart’s club did not support the Bolton League T20 competition.

Taylor said: “In the past three seasons Greenmount didn’t enter the competition once and withdrew twice.”

On this season’s new-look competition, he said: “The Bolton League are part of the ECB t20 competition, with the national semi-finals and final televised on Sky.

“Clubs have always been allowed to wear coloured kits, and most teams do.

“The Bolton League winner will be only three matches away from a televised appearance.

“In recent years the competition has been on a knockout basis, but this year it will begin in small groups of four or five leading to the quarter-finals.

“Matches are scheduled for Friday evenings, but we respect clubs may not want to disrupt junior practice evenings so matches may be played on a Tuesday evening or the May Bank Holiday Monday.”