Quote Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda View Post
Good point well made imo. Heresy to say it - and could lead to death threats if mentioned to certain cricket writers/fans on Twitter - but an 18 county system really does no favours at all. There is a finite amount of talent spread very thinly - hence you get too many easy periods when you can get away with switching off unlike Test cricket. Of course, you can't say this as obviously one-day and 2020 are to blame totally (which also is a factor of course)
Indeed. I've long advocated a parallel regional competition that takes the best from the various counties and effectively acts as a proving ground for potential test players. The counties would hate it, but it would do players an awful lot of good. At the moment, county cricket is probably weaker competitively than I can ever remember it. It's no wonder batsmen can't concentrate. In county cricket, if you can last to 20-30, the only person who's going to stop you getting to a hundred is you. Test matches are an even bigger step up than ever.