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The way ahead

The ECB Management Board announced its blueprint for the future of the English game at a presentation at Lord's on August 5 cricketers

The ECB Management Board announced its blueprint for the future of the English game at a presentation at Lord's on August 5. Lord MacLaurin, the ECB chairman, presented an audience of county executives and pressmen with a 32-page document entitled Raising the Standard, and announced that his intention was to create a "virtuous circle of success".

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A streamlined first-class schedule and improved results for the England team would lead to "maximum public interest, especially among the young" and a restructured programme of youth and regional club cricket would then channel talented prospects into the professional game.

These were the main planks of the proposal:

  • A three-conference County Championship to be introduced next year, with six teams to a conference. Each team would play 14 four-day matches, including two end-of-season playoffs. No promotion or relegation.

  • The Sunday League and the Benson & Hedges Cup to be abandoned in 1999 in favour of a two-division, 25-match, 50-over National League. There would be promotion and relegation (three up, three down) at the end of each season.

  • The NatWest Trophy to become cricket's equivalent of the FA Cup. Club sides, including the champions of the regional leagues, as well as Ireland, Scotland, Holland and the Minor Counties, would compete for the right to host a home tie against a first-class county in the third round.

  • The 2nd XI competition to be wound down, at first to two-day, one-innings matches played in two regional conferences of nine teams. A limit would be placed on the number of contracted players in each team in order to restrict the sizes of county staffs. The objective is to merge the competition with the Minor County Championship by the year 2000, creating a 38-county competition.

  • Under-17 and Under-19 county competitions to be played over two days, in the style of Australian grade cricket.

  • A national network of premier club leagues to be established, preferably playing two-day matches.

    • The counties will vote on whether to accept these proposals on Monday, September 15.

    The revamped County Championship would work on the principle that teams will not play the other sides in their conference, but will play all 12 teams in the other two conferences. When the placings have been worked out, each side will meet the two counties with equivalent positions from the other conferences in the playoffs. The winner of the playoffs between each conference's leading team will be the overall County Champion, while prize money will be handed out incrementally according to each county's placing.

    The constitution of the three conferences would vary from year to year. Each conference will include one side from each of the six regional groups set out in the proposal, with the aim of preserving local derbies, while the previous year's placings will also be taken into account.

    Regarding the National League, the document states that "It is acknowledged that the proposed changes will result in a slight increase in the amount of one-day cricket, but the one-day cricket being played will be of a purer form with the number of overs in the league moving up from 40 to 50 in 1999."