Sussex will oppose any plans by cricket bosses to introduce franchise Twenty20 cricket.
Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford wants to bankroll a new Twenty20 tournament, starting in 2010, which would see the 18 first-class counties split into six regional or city based teams.
Sussex would almost certainly be grouped with Kent and Hampshire and their home' games played at Hampshire's Rose Bowl, which is due to stage its first Test match in 2009, in English cricket's equivalent of the big-money Indian Premier League which launched last month.
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The squad would be made up of the best players from the three counties, boosted by overseas stars. As well as the six county franchises, two teams made up of world's best cricketers would also take part.
The concept is being discussed by the counties at the AGM of the England & Wales Cricket Board at Lord's today.
Sussex chairman David Green said: "I'm all for an English Premier League but I think combining counties into franchises is a no-no.
"The ECB are committed to 18 first-class counties and the only way that would change is if one went hopelessly bust.
"I couldn't see our members putting up with it or supporting it. There are tribal loyalties in cricket and you mess with them at your own risk. I'm pretty sure that 12 clubs would not want franchise cricket and the only ones who would are those who would be staging the matches - those with Test match grounds."
Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove is also opposed to the idea of merging counties.
He said: "It is difficult to see Hampshire and Sussex together because it would be like putting Arsenal and Tottenham together."
The domestic Twenty20 competition has been expanded for a third time since it started in 2003 to enable counties to play five home games this season.
Another review seems certain with counties including Sussex favouring the introduction of two divisions playing home and away, probably at the expense of 40 over cricket, rather than a wholesale transformation of the domestic game.
But that could out them on course for a showdown with chairman Giles Clarke and ECB officials, who have been in discussions with Stanford for the last week. Clarke favours a regional or city-based competition with franchises available to the highest commercial bidder.
Posted by: Don Bradperson, Australia on 12:24pm Tue 29 Apr 08
Being thoroughly frustrated in failing to beat the Aussies at test cricket for many a decade...limited over cricket was "invented" ! But alas the Aussies are brilliant at that too!
So the brains of the cricket world (other than down under) got together in a long drawn out conference, the topic of which was "How can we beat Australia ?" A vote was taken and the 50-50 chance of coin tossing was decided upon as the only chance of beating the worlds no 1....hence the birth of Twenty 20 cricket ! It is slightly more entertaining than coin tossing (but only just!)Hopefully NEVER an Olympic sport ?
Being thoroughly frustrated in failing to beat the Aussies at test cricket for many a decade...limited over cricket was "invented" ! But alas the Aussies are brilliant at that too!
So the brains of the cricket world (other than down under) got together in a long drawn out conference, the topic of which was "How can we beat Australia ?" A vote was taken and the 50-50 chance of coin tossing was decided upon as the only chance of beating the worlds no 1....hence the birth of Twenty 20 cricket ! It is slightly more entertaining than coin tossing (but only just!)Hopefully NEVER an Olympic sport ?
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