Board endorses reform blueprint but stalls on domestic shake-up

England's cricket chiefs endorsed a radical way forward for the national summer game yesterday only to revert to the game's best traditions by leaving the major points subject to further review.

Reacting to the recommendations of the Schofield Report on the eve of the second Test at Headingley, the England and Wales Cricket Board accepted 17 of the 19 proposals detailed in an 80-minute presentation, including a wide-ranging programme of coach and player development under the umbrella of a new ECB Performance Centre.

But details of a new management structure for the England team will not be revealed until after a further consultation process had taken place while plans to reduce the amount of domestic cricket played, including the potentially contentious scrapping of the Pro-40 league, have been passed on to the board's Domestic Structure Review Group.

It was admitted, meanwhile, that a bold ambition to cut the workload shouldered by the England players by reducing the international programme could not be pursued until at least 2011.

Outlining the ECB's reaction to the report, commissioned in the wake of England's 5-0 Ashes series defeat last winter and presented by the former European golf tour director Ken Schofield on Tuesday, the chief executive David Collier said that the report had been "exceptionally well received by the board" and that the "prompt endorsement of the recommendations will enable beneficial changes to be implemented in the immediate future".

These will include the appointment of a full-time national selector, taking on the duties that currently fall to the chairman of selectors David Graveney during home Test series and to the England coach on overseas tours, and of a new fielding coach, although after announcing that the current selection panel would be "abolished forthwith" Collier added that it would stay in place for the current series at least.

The creation of a managing director and of an executive director of county cricket, also expected to be a selector, however, could not happen immediately because of implications for other positions in the ECB structure, notably that of the director of England cricket John Carr.

Collier, charged now with drawing up a new management structure in accordance with best employment practice, promised that the new positions would be "consistent with the vision contained in the review".

The report called for the establishment of a management team "with full responsibility for the selection and performance of the England team" and for one member of the team to "promote communication between England and the counties to raise the standard of first-class cricket".

Given that Hugh Morris, a member of Schofield's working party, also heads the Domestic Structure Review Group, it is expected that the recommendation to scrap the Pro-40 competition will be carried through.

"We were asked to recommend the best way for England's one-day team to improve its international ranking," Schofield said. "We believe that restructuring and giving greater focus to the 50-over game will be very attractive [to broadcasters and sponsors]." Morris' group, due to report in the autumn, is likely to propose a programme that has more clearly defined periods of four-day cricket and 50-over cricket as well as the highly successful Twenty20 competition.

Asked how the ECB might achieve reductions in the international programme to create rest and practice time for England players, Collier said that agreements already in place meant the calendar was fixed until 2011.

"You need to change the cycle of home and away Ashes tours so that there is no clash with the World Cup and the first opportunity to change is 2013 but if you were to bring forward the Ashes series by one year it would clash with the London Olympics, which would be suicidal," he said.

Interesting? Click here to explore further