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)