Cricket needs to protect County Championship - Burns

Rory Burns has played 32 Test matches for England

Surrey's serial title-winning captain Rory Burns says English cricket must "protect" the County Championship as the new domestic season is set to get under way.

The first round of fixtures starts on Friday, with defending champions Surrey facing Essex at Chelmsford in their opening match.

Burns said he was "not really" worried that the red-ball competition might not appeal to younger audiences compared to shorter formats, provided they felt compelled to "still pick up a bat or ball and play cricket".

However, he believes the sport's stakeholders, including the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), need to safeguard the future of the Championship, which was first played as an officially organised competition in 1890.

"I think it's brilliant we have T20 and The Hundred," Burns said.

"We have to appreciate in the ecosystem of the game that's our cash cow, but we also need to protect what is the best format.

"You see Tests in day four and day five and they are going to the wire, people are fully engaged and watching, so it's how we use that as a gateway to getting eyeballs on our game and how we grow."

Burns believes runs and wickets in the County Championship are still highly relevant for England Test selection, even if it is currently fashionable to pick on potential rather than weight of stats in domestic cricket.

Warwickshire's Jacob Bethell and Somerset's Shoaib Bashir - the latter currently on loan at Glamorgan - have both been picked for England for their ability to play international cricket rather than their first-class records.

"It's down to the guys in those decision-making positions, how they want to pick the sides. I think the cycles that selection goes in, it generally flips round once people in the decision-making position change," said Burns, who has played 32 Tests for England.

"They have changed the way they are picking it for now and it will probably go in another cycle. It's like fashion, things turn around.

"For me, I'm still going to try to pump out 1,000 runs every year because there might be a faint hope the phone might ring."

The availability of Surrey's England-contracted Test players, including fast bowler Gus Atkinson plus batters Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope, for their season opener at Essex is being "managed by the ECB" according to Burns.

But he was confident the county will "be seeing those guys a fair amount" in the early part of the season as Surrey attempt to win four County Championship titles in a row for the first time in 70 years.

Burns also said county cricketers are now "used" to the Championship being shunted into different parts of the season to accommodate white-ball competitions.

He is not against a reduction in Championship matches from 14 to 10 - largely unpopular with county members - but favours a schedule where teams play each other home and away.

"I think the game has to pick which way it wants to go then fully commit to it," added the Surrey skipper.

"If there is a way of resting people and of making sure there's real blocks of games where people can go hell for leather, then do that. If it's just reducing games for reducing games' sake to fit more cricket in then I don't think we should."

BBC Sport will have full commentary on every match in the County Championship plus the best of the action from the men's and women's white-ball competitions.

Commentary will be provided by BBC Local Radio's expert pundits and commentators for every one of the 18 professional counties alongside summarisers from a mix of current and recent players from the women's and men's games.