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.