The England Cricket Board have considered the possibility of combining county sides for incoming tours, but the suggestion produced only lukewarm reaction at October's meeting of firstclass counties.
John Carr, an ECB official, said that the existing first-class structure made setting up regional teams impractical. ``It has been discussed, but it is problematic to schedule. I don't suppose it has been ruled out of court completely,'' he said.
The problem remains that, in England, touring countries have met too much indifferent opposition for too long - it is almost routine for counties to rest their overseas player and some leading bowlers - and the English situation is causing concern abroad and, privately, resentment. South Africa are to combine provinces by region for England's visit.
For example, Free State and Griqualand West plan to merge against England in the central area, Western Province and Boland in Cape Town, Gauteng and Northerns in Johannesburg, with Border joining Eastern Province.
The problems of organising the crowded English domestic programme are well illustrated by the 1999 schedule, with the new two-division national league and Super Cup, both unsponsored, existing alongside the County Championship, while the World Cup and its warm-up matches thunder through May and June.
The first-class season has never started earlier than next summer's April 8, and the championship begins on April 13, four days earlier than last summer. There is a new-look 50-overs NatWest Trophy competition, involving all the county boards, Wales minor county, Scotland and Ireland, and with Holland and Denmark competing for the first time.
The professional counties do not enter the NatWest until the third round, and the successful teams from the early rounds are guaranteed a home tie. The draw this time has no potential for pairing together the amateurs against the professionals of the same county.
The final at Lord's is a Sunday fixture for the first time, though the 1997 final was re-scheduled to a Sunday owing to Princess Diana's funeral. The semi-finals have been split to different days, another innovation.
Five provisional fixtures have been arranged for the New Zealanders in June in case they fail to progress through the final rounds of the World Cup.
The placings in the championship will determine the make-up of the two-division set-up for 2000.