Some good points in here will be hidden by the proposal to reduce the number of counties by 6 to 12. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/25702462 For me England have been under prepared in the last 4 or 5 tours
How would reducing the number of 1st class counties raise the standards? Like most things in life sport goes round in cycles. West Indies who were unbeatable in 70s and 80s are now rubbish,and have been for years,but they will come back. Aussie are improving after 4-5 bad years,but are no where near what they were 10 yrs ago. South Africa are the strongest team at moment and will probably stay so for 4-5 yrs. England will need to rebuild after 4-5 good years, and once the youngsters establish their places we will be back. Sub Continent teams are an enigma.so I will say no more on them. 4 day County cricket has always been poorly supported,but players like Botham,Laker, Trueman,Snow,Compton etc etc all came through the system and became World Class Players. Ask yourself,if County Cricket is so bad,why do the worlds best want to play it.
The theory is that less teams means that the overall standard is better Surely though tradition and history means something?
The argument doesn't work. Less Counties would mean less T20 games would be played for a start and that's the bread winner as it stands. Myself, I'd watch a CC game any day, but I do like 1 day cricket too. Mark Nicholas has trotted out this idea in the past as well, his absolute disregard of how thousands of fans of County cricket would feel about that, was evident when, at the end of explaining a similar plan to get rid of them was "Job done". What a cad.