The England & Wales Cricket Board is preparing to present a watered down version of its plans to reshape county cricket on Tuesday following fierce opposition from the 18 counties towards any radical overhaul of the domestic game.
Two days of meetings between the ECB and the counties begin at Lord’s on Tuesday with the likely result the summer schedule in 2016 will see more Twenty20 cricket played in the school holidays, a reduction in the amount of 50 over matches and the possible dumping of early summer fixtures against university opponents.
[quote author=mooray link=topic=99983.msg653957#msg653957 date=1441327862]
Its about England takes charge in cricket. The competition is too tough.
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The competition in county cricket is too tough? Can you expand upon this? Yorkshire have been the most dominant team in county cricket for the last two seasons and it hasn't even been close. Durham and Warwickshire have been competitive over the previous two years but struggled this year. The rest - namely Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, Glamorgan, Kent, Derbyshire and even Essex - have all been consistantly poor. There is a huge gulf between the top two or three sides and the rest. Hampshire and Worcestershire are a good example of this. They finished first and second in Division Two last year and were promoted to Division One where they are currently bottom and second bottom.
The competition has nothing to do with the opposition from county chairmen - the contention is regarding the plans to cut the number of county championship matches in favour of playing more 50-over and T20 cricket. By reducing the number of county championship matches from 16 to 14, you are going to create an imbalance scheduled, further affecting the competitiveness.