Glamorgan Cricket: County opposes Championship and T20 cuts

Glamorgan won six and lost three of their 14 Championship games in 2022, narrowly missing promotion

Glamorgan will oppose any reduction in the number of County Championship or T20 Blast fixtures, as the counties discuss Sir Andrew Strauss' high-performance review.

Cutting the number of Championship games from 14 to 10 has been suggested, to improve England standards.

The measure has met with hostility from Glamorgan members.

The Welsh county will also push for a reduction in the time given to The Hundred franchise tournament.

The statement from Glamorgan comes in the wake of a members' forum called to discuss the Strauss review, which was commissioned by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) after a string of poor England Test performances.

The review was published after a summer in which England won six out of seven Tests, following the appointment of Ben Stokes as captain and Brendan McCullum as coach.

Glamorgan have just over 2,000 members, with around 120 attending the forum and expressing universal opposition to having any less cricket to watch.

Counties currently play 14 four-day games, 14 Twenty20 matches and eight One-Day Cup matches before any knock-out stages.

England limited-overs captain Jos Buttler suggested a reduction in fixtures "would allow players to prepare properly, recover properly and put a lot more emphasis on those games... the standard could potentially be higher".

But any reduction would need to be approved by two-thirds of the 18 counties, and looks certain to be rejected.

Sussex chairman Jon Filby condemned the proposals as "unworkable" and Glamorgan will join the opposition to them when the county chairs vote, which is likely to be in November.

A club statement to members read: "Glamorgan does not support a reduction in the number of County Championship fixtures.. a reduction in the number of Vitality Blast fixtures.. [or] a straight knock-out competition in the Royal London Cup.. [it wants] the [50 overs] competition to be played alongside The Hundred."

The heavily marketed Hundred has drawn bumper crowds at eight leading UK grounds including Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, and forms part of TV contracts until 2028.

But it has been criticised by existing county supporters for stripping their teams of leading performers and Glamorgan will lobby for a shortening of its one-month window, despite gaining more financial benefits through Welsh Fire than the 10 counties who do not host a franchise team.

Meanwhile, changes in the Championship bonus points system and the number of counties in division one, currently 10, are likely to remain up for discussion as the ECB and county chiefs try to reach consensus over the shape of the domestic professional game.