Sussex chief backs current championship format

9:22am Wednesday 28th May 2008

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Sussex chief executive Gus Mackay has hit out at proposals to cut County Championship games to three days to accomodate a new Twenty20 competition to rival the Indian Premier League.

The ECB board of directors are due to meet tomorrow to discuss radical plans to shake up the domestic structure in response to the phenomenal impact the IPL has had on the game.

The ECB are planning to launch an English Premier League in 2010 to cash in on Twenty20 cricket's popularity but need to make room in an already packed calendar.

Other proposals include:

• A three conference County Championship of north, south and midlands.

• A revamped 40-over competition featuring two 20-over innings per side.

• A return to a single division of the County Championship.

• Merging the 18 counties into six regional sides.

• Axing the 50-over knockout competition.

Mackay accepts that changes need to be made in order to compete with the IPL but is adamant that a return to three-day cricket - which was the norm before 1993 - would be a backward step.

He said: "There is a lot of speculation as to what might happen and I have been involved in discussing the different options with chief executives of the other counties.

"There are some good suggestions on the table but we have to be cautious.

We have to have a proper debate and see what the market research says.

"What we mustn't forget is that the game has changed a lot because of the impact of the IPL but we must also be wary of reacting too much to it.

"I am certainly not in favour of three-day Championship cricket. What we have got now works so I don't see the point in changing it, although I am bound to say that because of our success in the format in recent years.

"It is the nearest thing to Test cricket and is important to the development of players for the national side. If we cut it to three days it could have an affect on the England team which has been doing very well since the Championship switched to four days.

"One of the suggestions is to have 120 overs a day which seems odd considering we have just reduced the number of overs to 96 a day. That is a lot of cricket compacted into one day and I don't think it would be beneficial.

"The other worry with three-day cricket is whether you are going to get manufactured results like there was in the old days and nobody would be happy with that."

The idea to revert to three-day cricket was mooted by Lancashire chairman Jack Simmonds, who is also the ECB's chairman of cricket.

It has received a frosty response from some of Mackay's counterparts on the county circuit and the Sussex chief executive believes there are better options to generate enough time to stage an English Premier League in midsummer.

He is also against merging the 18 counties into six regional franchises to compete in any English Premier League and prefers the option of a 21 team competition incorporating three overseas sides.

Mackay added: "Franchises in this country would not work as why would Sussex fans go to Hampshire to support a combined team? What we would like to see is a structure which includes all 18 counties.

"Obviously, something needs to give to make room for a bigger Twenty20 competition but I don't agree with having regional conferences of six teams in the Championship either.

"You've got to be careful of playing some teams over and over again. It happens in the one day competitions where we seemed to play either Surrey, Kent and Hampshire day in day out and it becomes a bit repetitive.

"I think if you want to create a window you need to look at some of the other competitions and in my opinion the future of the 50 over competition is questionable."

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