Counties split over franchise idea

The potential of an English Premier League to counter the dominance of its Indian counterpart may be gathering momentum, but already there is a split among the county chief executives.

Last week Sean Morris, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association, spoke candidly about his vision for the future and insisted that if England are to create a viable competition to the IPL, the 18 first-class counties must merge into six regional sides. Bold though the plan is, the counties are less certain.

"My aim is to knock this idea on the head," Richard Gould, the Somerset chief executive, told the BBC. "We are hugely against regionalising - that would lead, eventually, to the domestic game being reduced to eight regional franchises for all forms of the game.

"I don't have a problem with an EPL, as long as it involves the 18 counties. Otherwise it would drastically reduce the number of English-qualified players available. The Test-match playing grounds might benefit, because they would host the matches but the rest of county cricket would not."

Similarly, Neil Davidson, the Leicestershire chief executive, is concerned that the franchise system might threaten the game's tradition.

"Franchises would be a negative and could turn a lot of people off the game," Davidson said. "As long as the idea is a revenue generator that favours the game as a whole, I'm in favour. But we need to think about everyone, the minor counties, grassroots cricket and the Test match grounds."

Lancashire's Jim Cumbes, however, has greater confidence in the idea.

"There's really no need for us to merge, or Yorkshire or a number of other counties, but I think it could work in some areas of the country where the counties are pretty close together," Cumbes said. "We should be seriously looking at setting up our own Premier League. I could envisage two divisions, with promotion and relegation between the two, like the football Premier League.

"And I think it could happen as early as next year, with the top nine teams from our Twenty20 competition this year forming a Premier League."