England's regional option

Are regional sides the way forward for England?

By BBC Sport Online's Thrasy Petropoulos

Who says Australia and Pakistan have given England nothing but painful memories this summer?

Inadvertently, the touring sides might well have helped instigate a change to English cricket that could lead to the benefits that a two-division County Championship has so far failed to deliver.

Tour matches against county sides, dead on their feet for some time, could be a thing of the past from the end of the season.

On this summer's evidence, county cricket has not produced - and is unlikely to - cricketers who can take wickets and score runs at Test level.

  Possible North XI

Michael Gough, John Crawley (capt), Usman Afzaal, Nicky Peng, Andrew Flintoff, Chris Read (wk), Paul Franks, Chris Schofield, Chris Silverwood, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard

In the opinion of Geoff Boycott, too many players "Think they are big fish, but they don't realise they are only swimming in the little pool of county cricket".

Central contracts have worked up to a point, but last year England fielded 18 cricketers - and don't forget that Steve Harmison and Dean Headley, originally included in the list of contractees, did not play at all.

Lack of Form and injuries have combined to take this season's tally to 18, a figure which will probably rise for the third Ashes Test.

For all the progress they made on the England A tour to the Caribbean, Ryan Sidebottom, Usman Afzaal and, to an extent, Ian Ward have all shown that success for their counties counts as nothing when it comes to playing in Test matches.

  Possible Midlands XI

Ian Bell, Michael Powell (capt), Mal Loye, Aftab Habib, David Sales, Chris Bassano, Graeme Swann, Toby Bailey (wk), Jon Dakin, Mel Betts, Jason Brown

So how can we judge a player before blooding him in a Test match?

In principal, tour matches are the answer.

In the lead up to a series, and then between Test matches, county cricketers have the opportunity test their skills against the best in world cricket.

The only snag is that counties, as a matter of routine, seem happy to field as weak a side as they can possibly get away with when the tourists are in town.

This season's offerings have been nothing short of embarrassing.

  Possible West XI

Michael Powell, Phillip Weston, Mark Lathwell, Matt Windows (capt), Vikram Solanki, Ian Blackwell, Rob Turner (wk), Darren Thomas, Richard Johnson, Steffan Jones, Matt Bulbeck

At Leicester, Pakistan were presented with a side boasting only one first-team bowler and, at Taunton, Australia came across a similarly weak Somerset, who played only five regulars.

Conspicuous by their absence were the overseas players, as has been the case in all but four of the last 18 tour matches.

The results were predictable.

Leicestershire were beaten by in innings well inside two days and Somerset were brushed aside by 176 runs, a margin of defeat that hides the fact that Australia hardly pushed themselves, declaring at 348 for three and 335 for four.

To add insult to injury, Somerset included - at a cost of £10,000 each - two Pakistani Test cricketers, Aamir Sohail and Shoaib Akhtar, partly as a publicity stunt and partly to detract attention from their weak side so as not to lose the "honour" of staging such matches in the future.

  Possible South XI

Andrew Strauss, Will Jefferson, Owais Shah, Ben Hollioake, Ben Hutton, Ali Brown, Jamie Foster (wk), Alex Tudor, Phil Tufnell, Martin Bicknell (capt), Ricky Anderson.

So what is the answer?

Simple - regional cricket.

Consider the following proposal: in place of the traditional tour opener against Worcestershire in the peaceful, tea-and-cake surrounds of New Road, why not stage a match between the touring side and the previous winter's England A team.

A Tours are commendable in many respects except that, at best, the teams only ever play against the equivalent of county opposition.

Here, then, would be a chance to test the players' mettle against international opponents - and to try and put one over on the tourists at the start of their tour.

Then would come matches against the regions - the North (Durham, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire), the Midlands (Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire), the West (Glamorgan, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire), the South (Essex, Surrey, Middlesex,) and the South-East (Kent, Hampshire and Sussex).

  Possible South East XI

Rob Key, Richard Montgomerie (capt), Ed Smith, Matthew Walker, David Fulton, Lawrence Prittipaul, Matthew Prior (wk), Robin Martin-Jenkins, James Kirtley Ben Trott, Chris Tremlett.

Initially, counties would oppose the plan for it would further weaken the Championship as more players are pulled out county matches - but surely that is a price worth paying for the future wellbeing of the national team.

In all, however, it would entail only six matches - and possibly a seventh against a combined university side - and cricketers would naturally be striving for regional selection in the county matches that they do play.

There are financial considerations of course, not least the cost or relegation for weakened counties in both the Championship and the National Cricket League.

But ask yourself this - how many of the cricketers who were "injured" or rested for the tour matches this year would suddenly become available if they were asked to play in what amounts to a Test trial?

Say no more.