ECB officials propose alternative manifesto

A two-division County Championship was yesterday proposed by Lord's executives as the debate for change in English cricket reaches a climax.

Tim Lamb, the England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive, also revealed that an enhanced all-play-all Champion- ship, with a linked Super Cup for eight top teams, will also be considered when the 18 counties meet at Lord's next Monday to decide a new domestic structure.

There are now three options on the table, including the three-conference system outlined in Lord MacLaurin's original "Raising The Standard" blueprint of 5 August.

Lamb and three other senior ECB executives - Terry Blake, John Carr and Cliff Barker - have spent a week putting together the two alternative proposals after last week's meeting of the First Class Forum to discuss MacLaurin's document.

That gathering ended with the ECB's management board deciding that there was not enough broad support for the conference idea to get a significant majority of votes on 15 September. Lamb's team was immediately set up to look into providing options. Yesterday the 18 counties were faxed two alternative proposals and have a week to decide how to vote.

A fourth alternative, of course, is to vote for no change at all, but retaining the status quo would at this stage make a nonsense of a process for change which was set in motion by the counties themselves.

It seems certain now that the three-conference system, which would have produced a 14-match first-class season and included two play-offs for each county, will be rejected. The one-day proposals, namely a 25-match national league, also look doomed. But whether counties will embrace a two-division Championship remains to be seen.

The second of yesterday's proposals, for an enhanced 18-club Championship, looks like being a more attractive option for those unwilling to commit themselves to a two-division split. This new formula for revitalising the Championship, while keeping its present form, involves the top eight teams qualifying for a knock-out one-day Super Cup competition to be played in the first half of the following season. The plan is for this extra Cup to prove a lucrative affair, with accompanying TV coverage.

Improved prize money for the Championship, plus proposals for the bottom four teams in the Championship to join minor county sides in round three of the NatWest Trophy, are also outlined as ways of creating greater competitiveness.

If either of the two new proposals are voted in they would be adopted for the 1999 season.

The NatWest Trophy, although in an improved form and open to more minor teams, will remain as a 60-over competition but the final is planned to be brought forward to the last weekend in August. The draw for next year's first and second rounds, due to be made yesterday, has been delayed in view of all the uncertainty.