Regan bows out with T20 warning

They will make their views known during a meeting at Lord's to discuss the county structure.

They will also battle to keep the existing format of the County Championship and Clydesdale Bank 40 League.

The gathering of the 18 county chairmen, chief executives and directors of cricket at the game's headquarters is part of a consultation process with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The ECB want to hear clubs' views on the best way forward for cricket in this country.

Various proposals will be tabled for the three domestic tournaments, ranging from a reduced Championship to changes to the Twenty20 programme and the CB 40 schedule.

The ECB are expected to announce a decision next month.

Today's meeting marks the last official engagement of Stewart Regan, Yorkshire's chief executive, who is leaving to become CEO of the Scottish Football Association.

Regan will be accompanied at Lord's by Yorkshire's director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon and club director Robin Smith; chairman Colin Graves is unavailable.

Although Yorkshire have long argued to keep the Championship in its existing form, with two divisions and 16 games per county, they believe less Twenty20 would also be useful.

The competition was expanded last summer but

Yorkshire believe it has helped neither players nor supporters and failed to produce financial advantages.

Regan told the Yorkshire Post: "In our view, eight Twenty20 games home and away has caused fixture congestion, lack of rest days and hasn't seen the upturn in attendances people expected.

"This year at Yorkshire we saw a similar total crowd across our home Twenty20 games to what we saw in 2009, but we had the costs of three extra home matches to carry.

"We had just over 10,000 for the Lancashire game, which, given that the weather was okay was a disappointing attendance because we've had a full house in previous years.

"The rest of the games ranged from about 4,500 to 7,500 and our average attendance was about 6,000.

"In 2009, the average gate was around 8,000 from five matches, so it worked out roughly the same in terms of spectator numbers.

"One of the options is to revert back to the same structure we had last year, which was five home games and five away games, with the key difference being that the games are played during a window in the middle of the season that allows some time between matches.

"Five home matches, with several days between each match, would be preferable in our view.

"That way you could play the 10 games in a 30-day period and on fixed days of the week, ideally Fridays and Sundays.

"The other options are to retain the current system or to play five home and five away games in an even tighter window of about 17 to 18 days.

"My gut feeling is that we'll end up with the proposal we want to see."

Regan is optimistic Yorkshire's views on the Championship and CB 40 will also be embraced.

"Somerset will be presenting a case for a reduced Championship and there are proposals to reduce the number of games to 14 or 12 per county," he added.

"But we think the competition should be left as it is.

"The current format works well, while the Championship is vital for the long-term development of international players and Academy players.

"We lose a lot of cricket in this country to the weather and three-day finishes, so, if you reduced the structure to 14 or 12 matches, you'd probably end up with the equivalent of nine or 10 games, which isn't enough.

"My gut feeling is that it would be a brave ECB that overturns a Championship structure that underpins a lot of the county memberships, so I think it will probably stay as it is.

"As for the 40-over tournament, there are plans to reduce it from 12 group games per county to 10 or 11.

"Instead of three groups of seven, there could be four groups of five, or something like that, with one of the non-counties missing out.

"But I also think that competition will stay as it is."

Regan said whatever is decided it is imperative a clear structure is agreed and allowed to settle.

"What we need now is a line in the sand for a period of years so that everyone knows what the structure is," he said.

"If you viewed cricket as any other consumer goods business, it's foolish to be changing your product every five minutes.

"Customers get hacked off with that and after a while they stop buying the product. Cricket can't afford to be constantly tinkering around the edges."

What Yorkshire are asking for

10 Twenty20 group games instead of 16.

To retain the current 16-match, two-division Championship with promotion and relegation.

To retain the existing 12-match Clydesdale Bank 40 competition.

A clear domestic structure that is not chopped and changed 'every five minutes'.