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It is truly a brave new world into which professional cricket is stepping this morning as the County Championship makes its earliest start. Some traditionalists have been shed on the road to change so it will be important, possibly even crucial for the game's future well-being in the UK, that new spectators and enthusiasts should be enrolled over the season which is about to unfold in earnest.

The World Cup, the centrepiece of the cricketing year, will reach its climax at Lord's on June 20 and although it is already guaranteed to produce an £11 million profit for the International Cricket Council and even more for the host nation, its cricketing success must to a large extent depend on the weather. As happened when the first World Cup was started in June in 1975, shortly after a match had been snowed off in Buxton, the prayer is that sunshine will bless the tournament from its outset on May 14.

County cricket needs fair weather, too, not least in this brief period before the World Cup inevitably seizes the stage. The championship has a brand new sponsor, PPP healthcare, and the five matches which start today are the first of the 17 games per club which will decide who plays in which of the two divisions from next season.

The new 45-over CGU National League, still, confusingly, to be played on various days of the week, is already a two-division competition, with three counties to be promoted and relegated after the last matches are played on Sept 19.

More games than ever will be played under floodlights, a movement led from the south coast by Sussex, who have already pulled off a small coup by attracting 3,000 to Hove on April 1 for a friendly game.

The NatWest Trophy also takes on a new format this season, expanded to include 60 teams, including, for the first time, Denmark, Huntingdonshire and the amateur teams produced by the 38 county boards. The latter will in turn be the product in several counties of the premier leagues which have been brought screaming into life this season after much understandable opposition in amateur ranks.

Ten leagues have officially been designated 'premier' this year and one of them, the Forester Kent Premier League, will play two-day matches from Saturday to Saturday, with a minimum of 102 overs each day and rules aimed at ensuring that both sides have the chance to bat on both days.

Meanwhile, eight of the counties will be involved in one extra competition this season, the Benson and Hedges Super Cup, which has succeeded the old B & H after 26 years. Strong voices want its original format to return but for this season at least the top eight in last season's Britannic Assurance Championship will play a short 50-over knockout tournament, starting, as it were, at the quarter-final stage with four matches from June 25-27.

It is the championship which has the stage to itself today, however, and with 'premier league' positions at stake, the England team still in Sharjah and only eight of the counties not about to lose one or more players to the World Cup, there will be intense competition from the first ball, April showers or not. The fortunate eight, if World Cup squads remain unaltered, are Derbyshire, Durham, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset and Sussex.

By contrast, Lancashire and Surrey will have four players missing between early May and some point in June (depending on results) and Glamorgan, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Yorkshire two each. Points for winning have been reduced from 16 to 12 and those for drawing increased from three to four. Sterner cricket from batting sides when all hope of a win has gone might result, but that, like much else, will depend also on the quality of pitches.

Once more the integrity of captains, coaches and groundsmen has been taken on trust. For the record, the objectives which counties are required to follow (on pain of a penalty which, in the worst cases of neglect could amount to 25 lost points) are: ``At the commencement of a match the whole pitch should be completely dry, firm and true, providing pace and even bounce. The pitch should, ideally, wear sufficiently to give spinners some help later in the match.''

Even our Test pitches do not always live up to objectives which sound on paper as though they are designed primarily for batsmen, and variety is essential if county cricket is to maintain its character; but the vast majority of pitches, surely, should be such that no toss-winning captain hesitates before deciding to bat first.

What the championship desperately needs if it is to hold its own as the premier domestic competition and as the supply line for a more successful national side is a high proportion of games in which the issue is still in doubt at tea-time on the fourth afternoon.

1999 Season Statistics

PPP healthcare Championship:

Prize money: champions £100,000, 2 £45,000, 3 £22,000, 4 £15,000.

Top nine form first division in split for 2000.

CGU National League:

Div 1: Essex, Gloucs, Hampshire, Kent, Lancs, Leics, Warwicks, Worcs, Yorkshire.

1 £53,000, 2 £26,500, 3 £13,250.

Div 2: Derbyshire, Durham, Glamorgan, Middlesex, Northants, Notts, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex.

1 £15,000, 2 £7,500, 3 £3,750.

Bottom three relegated, top three promoted.

NatWest Trophy (final, Sunday, Aug 29, Lord's):

Champions £52,000, runners-up £26,000; losing semi-finalists £16,000

Benson & Hedges Super Cup (final, Sat, Aug 1, Lord's):

Champions £50,000, runners-up £25,000; losing semi-finalists £15,000.

Top eight teams from 1998 championship participate.