Minor Counties Cricket To Rebrand In 2020

Cricket’s Minor Counties are set to rebrand as the National Counties Cricket Association after 124 years.

The name change, which will come into effect next year, was among a series of changes to the second tier of the county game approved by the ECB Board.

The decision will now need to be rubber-stamped at the Minor Counties’ next meeting.

News of the changes follows the ECB signing off a new five-year strategy towards the end of 2018, designed to support the future of domestic cricket in England and Wales.

Talks between the Minor Counties and the ECB have been ongoing for over a year, where discussions involved issues such as the funding of Minor Counties cricket and its future structure.

Amongst a number of further tweaks to help drive a more competitive environment, there will be automatic promotion and relegation within the current Western and Eastern Divisions.

The Divisions are each currently made up of ten teams, but the new plans will see the respective Divisions split into two groups of five, with the three-day matches per season decreasing from six to four games.

Under the latest changes, the MCCA final would now be between the Division One East and Division One West winners, whilst the fifth county in each regional First Division would face relegation, replaced by the winning county in Division Two.

After the Minor Counties Twenty20 (T20) was re-introduced last year, T20 will be retained, comprising four groups of five and the respective group winners progressing to the Finals Day.

Completing the Minor Counties’ three core competitions, the 50-over Trophy would revert from a knockout format, increasing instead to the old group format, including a quarter-finals and semi-finals.

Under the revamped plans, it has been proposed that the 50-over Trophy would be positioned at the start of the season, with the T20 following, before the season concludes its three blocks with the three-day competition.

Further plans are to be debated in the near future, which includes the possibility of bringing back the opportunity for every National Counties side to play matches against first-class opposition.

Such a move would be the first time games have been played against top-tier sides since Minor Counties sides were excluded from English cricket’s premier one-day competition 13 years ago.

Nick Archer, Chairman of the Minor Counties Cricket Association told BBC Sport: ” We knew the game had to change. We’d had a good steer that this would all be approved. But, until you see it all agreed, it’s not certain, so there is a feeling of relief.

“As to the name change, it has long been felt that Minor Counties seemed a pejorative term. And we should now be called from 2020 the National Counties Cricket Association.

“Other names were suggested but made us sound a second-rate organisation and this has now been approved by the ECB.”

Photo: © Getty Images