Thetownend.com

It looks as if Mike Soper (ex Surrey Chairman) will put forward some new proposals
to include all of the counties.Somerset and Gloucs,were furious at the thought of
a competition that would only include the 9 biggest counties.Here's what been reported;

Soper Makes Fresh Proposal

Former Surrey chairman Mike Soper has provided a rival plan for a Twenty20 tournament including all 18 counties for the England and Wales Cricket Board to consider this week.

The main focus of Tuesday's board meeting was supposed to be on proposals drawn up independently by MCC secretary Keith Bradshaw and current Surrey chairman David Stewart for a new event involving nine franchises based on the successful Indian Premier League formula.

Their plans, which are due to be presented to the meeting, involved franchises based at all the major international grounds competing for the top prize with a separate Twenty20 tournament among the counties planned for Friday evenings.

It has attracted criticism from the smaller counties, who believe it would create a financial division between the haves and have-nots, and is not expected to gain enough support to be put into practice.

But Soper told the Independent newspaper today that he had already submitted a rival plan four weeks ago, which would involve all 18 counties with the emphasis being put on the smaller clubs to improve their grounds to help generate more revenue.

"We have to make the assumption that everyone is saying about the Twenty20, that it is going to be highly profitable, because if that is not the case then there is no point in putting forward any new proposals," said Soper.

"But to take it further forward it needs more money, and to get more money you need bigger crowds. At the moment only the Test match grounds have the sort of capacity to cope with an upsurge in public demand."

He stressed: "To make money for the whole of cricket I believe we should have two leagues of nine, split into Test match grounds and non-Test match grounds.

"For the first three years, whatever the money is from TV and sponsors - and I have heard sums of between £40 and £50million - should be split on a basis of two thirds to the large grounds and one third to the non-Test match grounds.

"But the non-Test match grounds have to be helped to improve their facilities and increase their capacity.

"Therefore I propose that the Test match grounds lose £500,000 of their annual ECB hand-out, presently £1.3million, and that half million goes to the nine smaller grounds to help them to finance ground improvements."

Soper, who lost out to present ECB chairman Giles Clarke in last year's election, proposes a minimum capacity of 18,000 and believes after three years there should be promotion and relegation between the two groups and an equal share of the revenue.

He suggests replacing the current 40-over competition with his plan and wants all Twenty20 cricket to be excluded from the next broadcasting agreement because he believes it can generate massive income if sold separately.