In his editor's notes of the 2004 edition, Matthew Engel advocates a fusing of the County Championship and National League into a single, unified competition.

Engel writes: "There is no reason except habit why first-class cricket and one-day cricket should require different competitions.

"A merger would reinvigorate both of them, provide an attractive sponsorship package, make the game far easier to follow and fixtures easier to plot."

Engel calls the proposal his "more or less" original contribution to the debate surrounding county cricket and what should be done to improve it.

"Above all, it would cut four competitions down to three and make it harder for counties to try harder in one form of the game and forget the other.

"It would be a spur to excellence, which the English domestic game badly needs."

Engel shuns the suggestions put forward last year by the Cricket Reform Group, which is fronted by former England Test captains Mike Atherton and Bob Willis.

Elite plan gets thumbs-down

While agreeing with the group's basic tenets - fewer professionals, more streamlined management, more money for the recreational game, mergers between minor and major counties - Engel describes some of their points as "rather vague and extraordinarily prescriptive".

On the grounds of being unworkable, Engel rejects the notions of a county "premiership" involving six teams and the country's best players, and a clear path to the top via recreational cricket involving "non-full-time professionals".

"I am gobsmacked that Mike and Bob expect English cricket to be more competitive by becoming more amateur," Engel writes.

Elsewhere in the editor's notes, the following points are made:

• Engel criticises the scheduling of the Champions Trophy - due to be held in England this September - and warns that the tournament has "all the makings of being somewhere between a squandered opportunity and a total fiasco".

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• Engel says England should not tour Zimbabwe later this year on the grounds of morality. But Engel fears the reprisals England would encounter in the event of a boycott.

• Engel calls for quality over quantity in international cricket, denouncing the International Cricket Council's current Test Championship system.

• Engel appeals to the England and Wales Cricket Board to inaugurate a new trophy for Test series between England and South Africa, proffering the Nelson Mandela Trophy as a possible title.

• Engel suggests ICC presidents should be chosen on their own merits and not by individual countries, and should serve four-year terms instead of the existing two.