A radical shake-up of county cricket which would see the 18 first-class sides compete across all three formats to become the overall champion has reportedly been proposed.
Sir Andrew Strauss is leading a high-performance review of English domestic cricket in the wake of England 's humiliating 4-0 defeat to Australia in the Ashes. Speaking last month, Strauss outlined his plans for the review, saying: "I believe we're looking very strongly at being the best in the world in all formats.
"I think the knock-on effects, right the way through the game if the shop window is functioning well, are enormous, so as a game we need to get alignment behind that ambition. If you take a longer-term perspective on these things you have to say, 'How can the two teams run concurrently alongside each other?' and 'How do we best support our white- and red-ball specialists to allow that to happen?'
"We want recommendations to be signed off in time for the 2023 domestic season so that really means by the end of September this year ideally. You could stretch it a bit but these projects can get very broad and you can get stuck. So it's important to focus on people's minds. If we're going to do it we've got to do it for 2023."
The review is now set to begin next month after Rob Key was appointed Managing Director of England Men's Cricket, replacing Strauss who had filled in on an interim basis after Ashley Giles was sacked. And according to a report from the Daily Mail, 'informal talks' have already been held about the structure of county cricket, with one radical proposal calling for the County Championship, One-Day Cup and T20 Blast to be 'merged in a format similar to that used to decide the women's Ashes'.
The idea would 'keep the existing first-class structure in place' but also reduce the amount of domestic games, with each competition split into three divisions of six. The proposal is one of several being discussed and whatever is recommended by Strauss' review will need to be backed by the counties.
Key has previously outlined his ideas on how to restructure county cricket, telling Sky Sports back in January: "Play 50-over cricket at the start of the summer, and then I'd go to 10 games in the County Championship.
"I'd take the best 12 teams in the country and I'd put them in two divisions, A and B - that's then your top-flight cricket - and the two winners of those divisions play to decide who wins the Championship. The bottom division [of six], if you finish in the top two of that, you replace one team from each of the A and B tables.
"That way, you're saying to 12 counties - which is the amount you need to pass a vote - you're still in top-flight cricket. And then, hopefully, with the bottom division, in theory it's easier for them to get into top-flight cricket because you only have to be in the top two out of six teams rather than the nine it is now."
