Sir Michael Barber and Jamie Cox, the chair and chief executive of Somerset CCC recently at which the ECB proposals to change the domestic programme were outlined and the Members responses sought to enable the club to respond accordingly.

The outcomes of this forum have since been mailed out to all members and posted on the club’s media platforms.

“We are a county that loves to play cricket and we don’t want to see a reduction in the number of fixtures, at least not before some creative attempts at reducing congestion are debated. It is quite simply the way that everybody at Somerset feels,” Sir Michael said.

“It almost seems that we are being punished for selling out all of our Blast games as well as attracting big attendances to all our Metro Bank and Championship matches.”

The proposals put forward don’t affect the Metro Bank Cup very much, but in the Vitality Blast the proposition is to have fewer matches per county and be in regional groups of six, as opposed to the current north and south groups of nine teams in each,

“Somerset is united in its opposition to the proposed changes. They do not present creative solutions to the congestion challenges in the game.” Sir Michael continued.

“We don’t want less Blast matches, and as you could see from the number of people who attended our victory over Essex that was played midweek on a Tuesday night - we like the Blast and the players like the Blast.

“If you take a home game away from us we not only lose substantial revenue, but also a key opportunity to inspire the south-west through cricket, so we are against reducing the number of Blast games, even if we turned out to be the only county who believe that.

“Regarding the County Championship proposals we are also opposed to a reduction in the number of matches played. On this subject we have one or two supporters among the other counties.”

Sir Michael went on: “However I think it is very likely that the Blast will be reduced- and we don’t like the regional groupings but prefer the north south structure. Rivalries are more than just between neighbours and for example, we know our players and supporters would not want to lose our annual Surrey clash at Taunton.

“A catalyst for change has been PCA player survey data indicating workload concerns. We are very sympathetic to this, particularly our players who play all formats but see this as a situation for the Club to manage in partnership with players and coaching and science and medicine staff – it is not the job of the fixtures.

“There are also a number of players in our squad who would like more cricket rather than less.

“We are still arguing for what we want and will keep doing so both with the other counties and with the ECB. What we said to the Members who attended the forum relating to the issues outlined here was unanimously supported.

Sir Michael added: “However we are very clear where we stand and we will fight against any proposals regarding a reduction in the number of games and for more creative solutions for improving the cricket on offer during key summer months. ‘We are a county that loves to play cricket’- but we can’t guarantee to win that argument.”