My real concern is with the Championship - it staggered along for over a century in a pretty mediocre state despite England players being regularly available and even latterly when, unlike now, a lot of the best players in the world played in it. Now, when it at last serves its purpose as a breeding ground for England internationals (the step up just doesn't seem to be what it was even a decade ago), and it starts gripping the public's imagination in a way it never has before, it comes under threat.
Four day cricket has helped as has two divisions but the main thing has been improvements in coaching and the fact that the journeyman county pro hanging on for his benefit has disappeared - they used to really clutter up the County game - they've gone because they've been rumbled mainly, I suspect, because of the greater demands for athleticism that one day cricket brought as it developed, and the way better coaching has improved the ability of young players to hold their own - and no doubt the mindset generally is radically different.
My trip to the Rose Bowl brought this home to me - the Hampshire side consisted of two decent and competitive old hands (Cork and McKenzie), four good established cricketers (Ervine, Lumb, Adams and Carberry) and five youngsters (Balcombe, Bates, Briggs, Tomlinson and Vince) - not a wasted place in the side - Lancashire were slightly different in that I think Chilton was the one old fashioned honest toiler on show (although in fairness he did average 50+ in '09) and we also had Horton and Croft who need to move on now from youngster to good cricketer, but what I do know is that if they don't they'll be shown the door rather than allowed to average in the high 20's/low 30's for another decade.
To contrast I just checked the scorecard of the Surrey/Lancs game I saw in 1983 - there were at least four in each team who wouldn't get close to a county XI these days.
I'd really rather the Championship wasn't touched at all but my suggestions were made on the assumption its going to have to be - I really don't want to see two divisions of 9 counties each just playing 8 matches a season hence perhaps enlarging the top division if each county is only to play the other once.
As for 40/50 over stuff it needs to be a knockout cup firstly because historically that's a great format (works for all sports) and secondly if its anything else it loses credibility - in the CB40 this season once Lancashire were out of it the teams they fielded were, to say the least, experimental, and that's not showing proper respect for the competition but, at the same time, is difficult to criticise.
And I don't like the idea of franchises either but to my mind T20 has two functions. The first is to bring money into the game and the second is to bring in new supporters who will in time embrace the First Class game - I have no doubt franchises will better achieve that than the counties - leave them to concentrate on maintaining the County Championship as the fantastic competition it has become
