AROUND 130 Somerset County Cricket Club members gathered in the County Room on Wednesday evening to discuss the proposed changes to the domestic schedule, with the creation of a new T20 tournament high on the agenda.

All 18 first-class counties staged their latest meeting on Monday, with the ECB aiming to ask for a  change to the existing constitution which currently invites all 18 counties to participate in every competition.

This would pave the way for the creation of a new T20 tournament to be staged from 2020 onwards, with the following proposals:

  • No further reduction in County Championship matches
  • Existing T20 Blast would be played prior to the new tournament
  • New T20 competition would coincide with domestic 50-over competition
  • The intention to limit the amount of international cricket played over the new tournament window.
  • Eight new teams would be involved, contesting 36 matches in the space of 38 days
  • Some matches from the new tournament would be shown live on free-to-air television
  • Players would be allocated through a draft system, with different players assigned to different price bands
  • Each team would receive a set player budget, with 13 players signed in a ‘first draft’ and two more added as ‘Wildcards’ as a result of performances in the preceding Blast
  • Coaches could not coach at their home venue

Somerset CEO Guy Lavender announced the above information, as well as presenting reasons for and against the formation of a new competition, before taking questions from the floor alongside Director of Cricket Matthew Maynard.

As expected, there were several points of contention raised by Somerset supporters in the audience regarding the proposed changes, with the county being in the enviable position of not being overly reliant upon the money guaranteed by the ECB.

Some queries were of a financial nature – one member was concerned as to whether the pay out of £1.3m to each county would create a ‘dependency culture’ between the counties and the ECB – while others related to on-field issues, such as the possibility of Somerset losing top players to the tournament and the potential dilution in quality of the other formats of the game.

Addressing the latter, Lavender said: “We would be delusional not to expect a new tournament to have an impact on other competitions, but we are also confident that the strength of support in this region would ensure that Somerset still attract good crowds across the board.

“Fans have regularly said that they would not travel to Bristol or Cardiff to watch a new team, but that is good – we want people to continue coming here to support Somerset.

“The new tournament is not aimed at existing fans, it is being set up to attract a whole new audience to cricket.”

The status of the 50-over competition looks likely to suffer particularly heavily as a result of any potential new T20 tournament due to the fact the two would run concurrently, meaning the top white ball players would not be available to feature in the longer of the two limited overs formats.

Having placed great importance on success in the 2019 World Cup on home soil - with the recent resurrection of the North v South series an example of the ECB’s current emphasis on 50-over cricket - the focus of the one-day tournament from 2020 onwards would be shifted to focus on the ‘stars of tomorrow’, creating an environment for young players to gain experience at county level.

With regard to the feelings of current players, Maynard referenced a recent survey carried out by the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) that saw over 90% of players respond in favour of a new tournament and said that “outside this country, our T20 competition is not seen as brilliant.”

Charles Clark, a member of the Somerset Committee, then outlined the existing view of the organisation which will ultimately decide the club’s position on the proposals.

“It could have been a lot less palatable than it is now,” he said.

“We feel a bit like we have entered a restaurant where there is pork and beef on the menu, looked at it and said ‘we want chicken’ – unfortunately, that is not an option and so we can’t have that.

“It is not a done deal by any means, and we still have some reservations which are set to be discussed.”

The Committee are to meet next week to continue the debate, and here at the County Gazette we want you to join in too – leave your comments below, tweet us @CountyGazSport or enter the discussion on our Facebook page.