Less than 24 hours before the start of the county season, the ECB has announced a review into the men's domestic structure which could see a reduction in the number of County Championship matches from 14 to 12 as early as 2026.
The review, overseen by the Professional Game Committee (PGC) and expected to take "two to three months", will be the third undertaken in the last seven years, and follows the Andrew Strauss-led high-performance review in 2022, which came in the wake of England's 4-0 Ashes defeat in Australia.
A number of Strauss' recommendations, including reducing the number of County Championship and T20 Blast games to 10, were dismissed out of hand by the counties. This time around, their greater involvement in what is hoped will be a game-wide collaborative effort should make them more amenable to change.
Even at this early stage - talks began on Tuesday at the professional county assembly attended by the chairs and chief executives of the 18 counties - a 10-match Championship season has been ruled out. But cuts to the volume of red-ball cricket are expected with the Hundred set in stone for the summer holidays and the Blast still lucrative for all 18 counties. The review will also address the need for a more significant List A competition, having been played in the Hundred's shadow since 2021.
The ECB is hopeful this process will result in a meaningful domestic revamp from next summer onwards, one they hope will satisfy all parties, including the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA), who have lobbied for a leaner schedule on behalf of their members.
That optimism comes primarily from the fact the county game is soon to be flush with cash following February's landmark sale of equity in the Hundred, which is set to bring approximately £520 million into English cricket. Despite the recent delay in negotiations resulting in an extension of the exclusivity period between some investors and their respective host counties, the ECB sees no reasons why the eight sales will not be ratified by the new deadline set for the end of April, with the agreed-upon valuations locked in.
While 12 out of the 18 counties will need to vote in favour of any mooted tweaks, their involvement should mean fewer hurdles to overcome. The PGC, which was set-up in 2022 and feeds into the ECB board, is headed by Warwickshire chair Mark McCafferty, and features county chief executives in Steve Elworthy (Surrey), Ryan Duckett (Derbyshire) and Tim Bostock (Durham), as well as representatives from the PCA and recreational game.
With the County Partnership Agreement set from 2025 to 2029, and major match allocations for international cricket sorted through to 2031, Rob Andrew, as managing director of the professional game, feels now is the time to work out a domestic structure that best serves all concerned.
"I think the game now feels that we have an opportunity to look at the men's domestic schedule a little bit more holistically, knowing where the Hundred is in the calendar," Andrew said. "It's very much about the counties themselves, and this is what I think is really important.
"We started this process on Tuesday at the pro county assembly with all the chairs and all the chief execs, so that over the next two or three months we will be engaging with the game, with all stakeholders in the game to put together what we hopefully feel will be the best domestic men's competitions that we can in this country.
"Obviously that focuses around County Championship, the Blast competition, which has possibly been a little bit in the shade over the last couple of years with the establishment of the Hundred. We need to have a look at the 50-over competition as well. So there's a real desire across the whole game, including the PCA.
"We've spoken to the PCA lot in the last 12 months, and the players. We know the members we need to engage with across the counties. We know the DOCs [directors of cricket] have clearly a lot of experience about how we can make those three competitions the best that we can make them in this country for all participants, players, members, media. I think it's fair to say that, at the moment, there's a feeling that these competitions can be improved, as we all know.
"We're basically facilitating a discussion around how can we improve this current schedule. Because I think the one thing that is clear from my reading of the game and my discussions with the game is that everybody recognises that the schedule is not perfect and the schedule is not optimal. We've got 18 counties that, that agree that it's not right. But we've got 19 different versions of what the answer is. And, and our job over the next few months is to try to pull all of those views together to get to a schedule where everybody can look at it, including the media.
"The 2022 high-performance review was done in a very different backdrop to the one that we're facing now. There's a very stable backdrop to the domestic county structure, and there's no question that the Hundred process gives some financial certainty to the future."
Despite lauding the County Championship as "the best red-ball competition in the world", Andrew would not be drawn on whether a new structure will mean fewer than the 14 matches currently played across Divisions One and Two. "Nothing's on the table and nothing's off the table."
He did admit the onus was on finding solutions promptly to protect the integrity of the current season given the stakes around relegation and promotion - and the need to offer players and supporters some much-needed clarity, given the state of flux around the domestic schedule. The current system is far from perfect, with a 10-county Division One meaning not all teams play each other twice.
"The County Championship is the blue riband of red-ball cricket in the world. We believe it's the best red-ball competition in the world. We want to make it better. We want to embed it even stronger. We've got some of the world's best players, best coaches who want to come and be part of the County Championship, and we want to make that even better.
"The intention and hope is that we can put it in place for 2026 and a bit like the other agreements around, hopefully have a period of time where we can settle on a structure that we can let bed down. And actually that's the other message that we keep getting - we need to let something settle."
With the Hundred sale providing the backbone for change, ECB chief executive Richard Gould has spent the last five days in India to ensure they remain on track. Having arrived back on Wednesday evening following talks with prospective buyers over reported concerns about some of the terms of their respective agreements, particularly those regarding future broadcast rights, Gould acknowledged the validity of their queries and their need for more time.
"They are coming into the ECB as new arrivals, so [it was about] being able to give them the certainty that we can help them to drive value," he said. "That's largely where it's coming from - drive value from sponsorships, ticket sales, broadcast.
"They're investing a lot of money into our game, and we want to make sure they can bring the dividends as well. They're largely commercial discussions, but what's interesting is that they're all on a very, very sound footing.
"We've got some parties which are absolutely ready to go now, others that have got a few additional questions and points that are being worked through. I really do think that we are on the final run of those."