'It is a divisive, bootleg proposal' - Glamorgan chairman

The proposal for a £50million Twenty20 tournament in England to rival the IPL has been criticised by counties who are not part of the plan prepared by Keith Bradshaw, the MCC chief executive, and David Stewart, the Surrey chairman.

The tournament blueprint, which has been reportedly approved by Lancashire and Hampshire, contains 57 matches over 25 days at Category A venues (Lord's, The Oval, Edgbaston, Trent Bridge, Headingley, Old Trafford, the Rose Bowl, Chester-le-Street and Cardiff). The major concern for the nine counties who do not play at Category A venues is that the tournament will widen the gap between them and the richer counties despite assurances that the revenues would trickle down to all levels.

"It is very disappointing that this has not been discussed with other counties at all," Tom Sears, the Derbyshire chief executive, told the Guardian. "It would completely change the landscape. We would see the rich getting richer and the have-nots fall further behind. As soon as you get private investors involved all they are interested in is making profit.

"Money would go to the owners, a bit to the counties who own Category A grounds and only a tiny fraction would dribble down. Their lot would get better and ours would get worse. The money that would filter down to us would be minimal. The only way it could work for a smaller county like Derbyshire is if the sum we received was astronomical. If it is not then we would never consider it."

Mark Newton, the chief executive of Worcestershire, expressed surprise that the proposal hadn't been discussed when the counties met last week. "We have been with these counties twice in the last week, talking about the future of Twenty20," he told the Independent. "I can't believe people would sit there and not say anything about this. I don't enjoy situations where you have to question people's integrity and, unfortunately, that is the situation we are in here.

"There was a chief executive's meeting on Wednesday and all 18 counties were generally in agreement about the way forward for Twenty20 cricket. There was an agreement that any competition would be based on the 18 counties. We have been told that the TV companies love the idea of a competition based on the 18 counties because we are creating something that already has an affinity. We have been told that the TV companies aren't interested in city-based cricket."

Glamorgan, whose home ground is in Cardiff, one of the Category A venues, came out in support of the smaller counties. "I believe this is wrong," Paul Russell, the chairman of Glamorgan said. "It is a divisive, bootleg proposal which has been generated from self-interest. I don't think these forays into flights of fantasy and fairy-tale economics do anybody any good."

The proposal is expected to be presented at an ECB board meeting next week.