While changes are likely to be implemented in 1999, publication of next season's programme is being delayed in case they can be pushed through earlier. Graveney is working on a detailed circular to all his members explaining what the consequences might be of any of the proposed changes.
``A lot of the younger players will have no idea what playing on uncovered pitches entails, for example,'' said Graveney yesterday. ``They probably envisage bowling and batting on wet mud. Whatever changes are made may effect their future livelihood and it's important that they should have their say in the debate.''
Three alternatives to the present system of three one- day competitions and a 17-match championship of four-day games are to be proposed, all with one less one-day competition. They are still under close consideration at Lord's, where nothing has yet been decided after a winter of consultations with the counties by Lord MacLaurin and Tim Lamb, chairman and chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Graveney, combining his PCA job with that of chairman of the England selectors, has a personal preference for the championship to be divided into two divisions of nine, with promotion and relegation for four counties to ensure that the upper reaches of the tournament do not become the preserve of a few rich clubs. To make that even less likely, he would favour an equal distribution of central funds to the clubs in both divisions, rather than a share-out based on finishing positions.
As reported in the Sunday Telegraph, Lord MacLaurin's ``preference when pushed'' is for a two-division championship decided not by merit on the previous season but by pulling balls from a bag annually, with semi-finals between the top two in each league. This is ill-considered. The ECB chairman was quoted as suggesting that each team would play the other twice before the play-offs, thus increasing the number of matches played by the winning county from 17 to 18, which can hardly be his intention.
Hugh Morris, the former Glamorgan captain, has put the case for this sort of tournament more rationally in this year's Who's Who of Cricketers. He proposes 12 games in the league format, followed by a knock-out play-off for the top four in each league.
Graveney confirmed yesterday, however, that my own idea for a regional tier for the best England-qualified players, playing four-day games against the touring team and the other five regions (the six being selected from groupings of three counties) is also to be put to the association's members.
The Regional Championship, sponsored and televised, would be the basis of selection for England teams and would be accompanied by a three-day championship on uncovered pitches. Such a system would have the double effect of giving more rest to the Test players and quicker first-class experience to more of the younger professionals who would otherwise languish in the second XIs.