THE ECB are to experiment with splitting limited overs county matches into four innings in 2010 with the possibility of introducing this format into the mainstream.

======STOP SUMMARY=====

Initially these games will be restricted to second-team competition, with a 40-over knockout being introduced for this purpose. The ECB said that firmer proposals would be announced in December, but there has been support around the shires for splitting the batting into four innings rather like a double twenty20. It is a novelty worth trying.

If the split seems to work well, one can expect an expansion because the format blends the best of 20-overs cricket with longer games. Many feel that this sort of arrangement would interest spectators more than 50-overs games at international level.

In first class cricket the ECB are continuing with using different match balls for first and second division games in the LV Championship in 2010, a second season of Dukes and Tiflex. As so often with assessment of cricket balls, opinion and anecdote varies like the ball itself. Dukes, in the top table, seems to swing less than in the past and has been criticised as going soft or losing its shape too early, an irritating problem throughout the Test series against New Zealand in 2008.

Tiflex, in the bottom table, is a Cornish-produced newcomer reputedly with an especially tough skin, but some people in Division Two, such as the Essex coach Paul Grayson, resent the guinea pig aspect while the Dukes remains the choice for Test cricket.

Some players have mentioned the Tiflex as being as hard as a rock, others complain that it has gone soft too quickly. Both brands swing a lot, and sometimes they don't, though most agree that the Reader's ball, now out of favour, rarely swung.

Angus Fraser, Middlesex's coach, offered a pragmatic opinion early in the 2009 season that action had to be taken to maintain quality with competition against Dukes, saying these cricket balls kept going out of shape in 2008. "Whether it was due to a poor batch or the size and weight of modern bats I don't know," he said, "but it caused so many hold-ups. Whenever a team went a few overs without taking a wicket, they started trying it on to get a different ball from the umpires."

So the ECB are giving Tiflex a second season in first class cricket, while Kookaburra continue to dominate the white ball market. Dukes remains the choice for Test cricket.

The ECB have set up working parties to look at the points system in the county championship and the player registration system, reporting in December, and they have announced that in 2010, if extreme strong wind is forecast that would preclude the use of mobile lights, the available overs in natural light will be split evenly between the two innings.

Powerplays in the ECB 40-over league will mirror the ICC on a pro rata basis- that is eight overs for the first Powerplay followed by two blocks of powerplay overs of four overs each. Hours of play for the league will remain as per the 2009 NatWest Pro40 except for an extra five minutes added to the interval. Hours would typically be 1.45pm-7.30pm for daytime matches and 4.40pm-10.25pm for floodlit matches.

The Second XI Championship will be split into two groups of 10 (North/South) as per 2009. The winners of each group will compete in the final. The format will be three-day matches with a four-day final. The Second XI Trophy will be split into two groups of 10 (North/South) with the winners and runners-up in each group progressing to the semi-finals. The competition will be played as a 50-over format.