Anyone who has ever watched Indian Premier League businessmen pedal their wares will know that details usually come a distant second to the big picture. And so it was on Monday at Lord’s, where the Royals 2020 franchise was unveiled and The Future Of The World As We Know It changed forever. But more than one starry-eyed hack came away wondering whether the implications extend beyond having to listen to Shane Warne’s gags about John Buchanan for another few years. Here, then, are some of the questions which need answering…

Will anyone watch?

If you were a Hampshire supporter, would you pay to turn up at the Rose Bowl in July and watch Trinidad & Tobago v Cape Cobras? The Royals 2020 brains trust insists big names and high-quality cricket will be enough to fill grounds, but this was presumably said with fingers crossed, and the example of the Champions League was not encouraging: Indian fans quickly lost interest after the IPL franchises were knocked out. But if this idea can attract yet another new type of fan (or are we running out of new types of fans?), then at the very least, the suits will be telling themselves, it’s got to be worth a try.

What will Hampshire get out of this?

The kudos of being the first county on board the bandwagon, certainly. The attention of the rest of our domestic game as chief execs and chairmen wait to see how things unfold, for sure. The occasional player-sharing gimmick, undoubtedly. Some cash, probably. But it’s hard to escape the feeling that the four non-Indian sides willing to adopt the Royals nickname and shirts are pawns on a chessboard that is in danger of expanding well beyond 64 squares. First and foremost, this is about turning Rajasthan Royals into a global brand. Hampshire, you hope, are going into this with their eyes wide open.

Will other counties follow suit?

A series of phonecalls yesterday yielded a common theme: the rest of the English game is watching and waiting. Some counties, it’s true, are already negotiating with Indian teams, but there seems to be nothing as yet to suggest a model similar to Royals 2020. One thing is clear: if, as many counties fear, the Ashes is de-listed and taken away from Sky, the domestic game will bear the brunt of the financial shortfall. Only the most innovative will do more than tiptoe along the breadline. With only seven other IPL franchises to go around – although two more are planned for 2011 – there are only so many deals that can be struck. But tradition dies hard. As one chief executive put it to me yesterday: “Are the rewards enough to sell part of your soul?”

Will other forms of cricket suffer?

Shane Warne believes 50-over cricket should become a World Cup event only. This sounds impractical (when would teams practise the format?), although it’s true that few would mourn its demise. Of greater concern is the future of Test cricket. Warne did his hail-fellow-well-met best on Monday to stress the primacy of Tests, but he sounded increasingly like one of those administrators who wax lyrical about the five-day game while at the same time signing a Twenty20 deal under the table. More revealing, perhaps, was the view of Sean Morris, Rajasthan Royals’ chief executive: “We have nothing to do with Test cricket.” This may be so. But every time Twenty20 grows another tentacle, the prospect of Test cricket’s strangulation increases.

Will the ECB object?

“Pure speculation” said a board spokesman when I put the question to him yesterday. But since this was followed by a response that amounted to “no comment”, it’s hard to know where we stand. At the moment, the franchise is proposing to use up only two or three days in a quiet part of July to stage the first of its five-team extravaganzas. Problems may arise, though, if other counties do the same. And then there’s the perennially vexed issue of TV rights. Sky have a deal with the ECB, so where would Royals 2020 fit into the equation? Monday provided no answers, but then part of the IPL’s charm has always been a tendency to make it up as you go along…

What’s the MCC’s role in all of this?

After all, Lord’s were hosting a press conference involving a county not called Middlesex. Much of it boils down to one man: Keith Bradshaw. Nothing if not forward-thinking, the MCC chief executive is such an impressive mover and shaker that no one would be surprised if an MCC XI comprising old stagers and young thrusters entered into a deal with an IPL franchise, with Lord’s itself the trump card. For the moment, though, it seems that the world’s most famous cricket ground is determined to grab a slice of the action. Last year it hosted the Rajasthan Royals – and attracted a crowd of 23,000, even on a rainy evening – and it is expected to stage a day of Royals matches in July. Quite simply, it doesn’t want to miss out.

Are there enough months in the year?

Burnout was one of Sean Morris’s hobby horses when he was chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association. Now the argument comes with a subtle twist: if there’s too much cricket, something has to give. But that something sure as hell isn’t going to be Twenty20. This presents another problem. We already have the Twenty20 Cup, the World Twenty20, the IPL, the Champions Trophy and assorted other domestic tournaments. The Royals 2020 concept risks diluting even further a market that is already overflowing. For players and spectators alike, we truly live in interesting times.

Lawrence Booth writes on cricket for the Daily Mail, and you can sign up for his weekly newsletter the Top Spin here. His fourth book, What Are The Butchers For? And Other Splendid Cricket Quotations, is out now, published by A&C Black