Captains believe there are too many counties

Half of county captains believe there are too many first-class counties in the English game, according to an end-of-season survey of all 18 domestic leaders by The Wisden Cricketer magazine.

Opinions were evenly split. Kent's Robert Key suggested a maximum of ten teams to ensure the best players played against each other, week-in-week-out. The recently retired Yorkshire captain Darren Gough agreed, but added that "nobody is ever going to do anything about it".

Defending the status quo was Warwickshire's Darren Maddy, who said: "I am a traditionalist and I respect the traditions of all the counties."

There was no such division of opinion when it came to the amount of cricket and time to prepare. Fifteen captains said there was too much domestic cricket, and 16 also believed there was too little time for preparation throughout the season. Sussex's Chris Adams said: "There is precious little time for recovery and time away from the game, which is fundamentally important." Those views were echoed by Maddy. "It's unfair not just on the players but on spectators who turn up to see players performing at 75-80% effort."

Another area of almost universal agreement is the belief that two divisions have improved the Championship. Seventeen of the 18 captains backed this view. "Young players who do well in the top division are ready to play international cricket," Justin Langer, Somerset's captain, explained. "You couldn't have said that before."

Despite the hype and glamour of Twenty20 cricket, 15 captains said the Championship remained the most important domestic competition to win. But looking ahead, one anonymous respondent said:" The English Premier League will become the most important."

Stuart Law, who was yesterday released by Lancashire, said: "It will be beneficial to counties for financial reasons, rather than cricket reasons."

In other findings revealed by the survey, Kolpak players were seen to have raised the standard of the domestic game by 10 captains, with one making the valid point that, "they mentor our young players at a time when the top English players are rarely available due to central contracts."

Twelve captains opposed the idea of a football-style transfer fee system for players, with one saying the balance of wealth is already too extreme, potentially leading to "a Premiership-style top four and that can get boring."

One captain who did back the idea suggested that , "a transfer system would be a fantastic way of giving money back invested in the best young players, who in time are bought by larger counties, to the clubs who developed them."