County Chairmen and Chief Executives have been meeting with the ECB in London to discuss changes to the game in this country.

The National One Day League will be a 45-over competition next season. It was planned to have a 50-over competition in line with one day internationals but this would mean that games would have to start earlier making floodlit games a less convenient. 45-overs seems to not please anyone so surely a move one way or the other would have been better. Promotion and relegation will be on a three up, three down basis. Gloucestershire will be competing in the first division of the competition.

The NatWest Trophy will be contested over 50 overs next season as apposed to 60 in previous seasons. This will bring and end to the early start which makes batting first a disadvantage in the FA cup of cricket.

The forum, chaired by David Morgan, also agreed in principle that the England squad should be contracted the the ECB and that further discussion should be conducted on a two division Championship. It was decided that England will play seven tests during the season instead of the previous six and that 10 one-day games should be played. This will bring more money to the counties, including Gloucestershire, through gate receipts and should take players away from teams opposing Gloucestershire more often. Now we know why Gloucestershire players are never picked!