The Twenty20 Cup will become the English Premier League in 2010

Gloucestershire chief executive Tom Richardson has backed the England and Wales Cricket Board's format for the new Twenty20 English Premier League.

All 18 first-class counties and two overseas teams will play in the EPL, which starts in 2010.

Richardson said he was pleased the ECB had opted against going down the route of introducing city-based franchises.

"There would have been a lot of counties not playing in June," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"Also, you would have gone from Gravesend to Lands End with only one team covering the south coast, the south west and the west country."

The new competition was unveiled by the ECB earlier this week, but with no detail as to how the two divisions will be decided.

Richardson believes the domestic Twenty20 competition in 2009 may be used to work out how the teams are split up.

"A possible solution might be that it's based on who qualifies for the quarter-finals in next season's Twenty20," he added.

"We've got to fit two overseas teams in, and I'm not sure if both teams will go into the top division or one into each, but for the counties that would be a fair way to look at it."