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England eying new era
LONDON. Aug 6 (Reuter): The English county championship will be subdivided into three American-
style "conferences" if wide-ranging reforms unveiled by the English Cricket Board (ECB) on Tuesday are approved next month.
Among numerous measures designed to improve both the state of the English domestic game and the Test side's lack of success, the ECB have decided the traditional 18-county structure will be one of the first things to go. 1 '
They are proposing three di-‘ visions of six counties, based on this season s results and regional factors, with each team playing all the sides in the other two conferences.
With two play-off matches for each county at the end of the season to decide every place, using extra prize money as an incentive, the ECB are hoping they will simultaneously reduce the number of "dead” end-of-season games and increase interest
There is also a complete
overhaul of one-day cricket, with the 50 overs Benson and Hedges Cup disappearing after next season and the 40-over Sunday League undergoing radical changes In 1999.
Instead of the current 40-over slog, a new two-division 50-over national league will be introduced, with counties encouraged to schedule more midweek and floodlit matches.
The 32-page plan, entitled 'raising the standard", also seeks to improve the quality of second XI and club cricket out critics, including Wlsden Editor qulred to play even more one-day cricket than they do now.
ECB chairman Lord McLaurin. who has threatened to resign if the proposals are not accepted by the various constituent bodies on September 15. and his chief executive Tim Lamb remain more concerned with raising cricket's profile.
"If we re not careful, we re In danger of having a minority spectator sport," said Lamb. There's no doubt it is in danger of losing its appeal."
Overseas players face an un-
certain future, with only one per county allowed and the ECB keen to limit the numbers playing in the top leagues around the country.
Touring teams may also find many of their traditional matcnes against county sides disappear, to be replaced by regional opposition. This could happen as early as 1998, depending on discussions with South Africa and Sri Lanka.
The proposed changes mean that this year s county championship will be the last of the traditional variety since it was first formally organised..in. 1890.
It has occupied a fixed place in the British sporting summer, apart from the war years, ever since, despite increasingly pitiful attendances and doubts about its quality.
Former Australian wicketkeeper Rodney Marsh famously dismissed the majority of English county bowlers as "pie throwers" and demands for "rapid reform" have grown more strident by the year. Eighty nine per cent of members polled said there was a need to raise standards.