ON CRICKET:A MEETING of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) at Lord's today will go a long way to shaping future summer schedules, including Ireland's participation in the premier one-day competition across the water.

The ECB are expected to rubber-stamp the reintroduction of The Netherlands to the new competition, with their brilliant victory over England in the opening clash of the World Twenty20 at Lord’s giving the Dutch a bargaining position they haven’t been afraid to use in influencing the game’s decision-makers.

The proposed structure for the new competition would see three groups of seven teams, comprising the 18 first-class counties, with the Dutch joining Scotland and Ireland to make up the 21 sides.

Games would be played on a home and away basis, scheduled to take place on either side of the extended Twenty20 tournament.

The sides participating may be clear, but just what format the competition will entail is set to be the main point up for discussion at Lord’s today.

The Professional Cricketers’ Association is keen for the 50-over format used in the Friends Provident Trophy to continue, while the counties, and hence the ECB, are predisposed to the 40-over format as they see it was a better money-spinner.

The ECB’s cricket committee will also discuss the option of a 40-over two-innings format that would allow sides to declare and even the possibility of a substitute player, an idea that didn’t last long as an experiment in one-day internationals.

Cricket Ireland will discuss the ECB’s proposal next week, but are keeping an open mind on what format would be best suited to the development of the international side. Over the last couple of years the Friends Provident Trophy has followed fast after a prolonged period of international cricket and with Ireland having to perform without their county-contracted players for much of their programme.

Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom believes the new-look competition must fit in with the goals and ambitions of the senior team, who have moved on considerably from the days when the clashes against county sides were often the highlights of the summer calendar.

“The point is how do we regard the Friends Provident Trophy. I think for us we regard it as an excellent development opportunity, which is exactly what the ECB were looking at when they included ourselves and Scotland in the first place.

“From our perspective, the question is whether we actually believe that the development opportunity means we are going to regard it as the mainstay of our summer. I don’t think it would be the mainstay of our summer, I think the sooner we get everyone into thinking we are the 10th best country in the world and we regard playing against countries as our bread and butter,” said Deutrom.

With Ireland looking to the International Cricket Council for a more substantive amount of quality international opposition, it remains to be seen just how, if indeed at all, the new English one-day competition will fit it with those future plans.