Andrew Strauss is facing a battle to push through the reforms proposed in his High Performance Review amid widespread criticism for the idea of reducing the number of games played by first-class counties, a key part of the proposals.
The review document, published on Thursday after weeks of speculation, says that “a reduction in the amount of cricket played is essential to ensure quality and intensity”, and claims that 61% of county supporters and 94% of directors of cricket believe there are too many games across the summer. Strauss has proposed reorganising the County Championship into three leagues of six, and also reorganising the T20 Blast, in both cases reducing the number of home games each county would play from seven to five.
