There is growing concern among a number of county chief executives that an independent panel could recommend reducing the number of first-class sides.
An independent review into high-performance cricket was launched after England’s 4-0 drubbing in the Ashes. It will be led by Andrew Strauss, the ECB’s interim director of cricket, who stated on Monday that “small incremental change isn’t going to make the difference we need. We need to be bold and ambitious”.
There is a general agreement within the ECB and the counties that the domestic structure is not fit for purpose and is hindering the quality of English cricket and the development of future international players. However, while the consensus is that change is needed, there is unlikely to be much agreement on the proposals, especially the idea of reducing the number of counties from 18 to ten or 12.
The review panel will comprise six to eight members, one of whom is likely to be the incoming director of cricket, who is set to be appointed in the next few weeks. A vote by the counties and the ECB’s board of directors on the panel’s recommendations is expected at the end of the season, which would allow for implementation of any accepted proposals from 2023.
It is almost certain that one of the key questions that the panel will look at will be whether having 18 counties spreads the pool of talent too thinly and whether England would benefit from having ten or 12 teams competing in one red-ball competition.
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The panel is expected to also focus on the number of matches being played each season and whether 14 championship games is too many, especially as it results in the red-ball season being played too early and too late in bad weather and on overly sporting pitches.
The review is also likely to consider whether it is sustainable to continue to have two marquee short-form tournaments, in the T20 Blast and the Hundred and, if it is agreed that they should remain, whether one or both should be reduced in length to try to ease congestion in the schedule.
Similarly, the future of 50-over One-Day Cup will be discussed, and there is an appetite among some within the ECB for it to become an FA Cup-style knockout tournament rather than the group stage and knockout format that it is at present. There would be resistance from many counties to moving to a knockout tournament because each county is guaranteed the ticket and hospitality income from at least four home 50-over matches and seven T20 Blast matches. Commercial and revenue stream priorities will need to be taken alongside cricketing ones.
As well as looking at the structure and future of domestic cricket, the review is likely to look at the quality of pitches across the country and a number of questions about the England team itself, such as whether the central contract system is the right one, how to best use the England Lions and England Under-19 system and what the future of the performance centre at Loughborough should be.
County chiefs have been briefed on the broad remit of the independent review panel and have been encouraged to be “brave and think of the big picture” when they are consulted. They have requested that they be kept informed of any key proposals being discussed by the review board because there needs to be a “reality check” throughout.
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Any changes to county cricket have to be accepted by 12 out of the 18 counties in a vote and it is unlikely that they would want a reduction in the number of counties or any proposals that would negatively impact their revenue.
There have been a number of post-Ashes losses reviews of the domestic structure, few of which have amounted to little more than tweaking around the edges.
In 2018, Wasim Khan, the chief executive of Leicestershire at the time, completed a review of the domestic structure, which resulted in little change to the championship other than to agree that it should not be played alongside the Hundred and the top division should comprise ten teams.
