Rain: Kills the ambition of some teams

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I'll be honest modesty has never been my strongest suit. So imagine my delight when my talents as a visionary of cricket - a prophet if you will - were proven yesterday with the news that the ECB will pay £500,000 to the winners of next year's county championship.

Forgive my self-indulgence but on June 19 Dave "Nostradamus" Fulton wrote: "If a former player and occasional hack can throw a gauntlet down to an organisation as mighty and as rich as the ECB then here goes: ECB act now to demonstrate your commitment to the four-day game in this country by putting some proper prize money into the Championship. My suggestion is to pay half a million to the winner of the first division."

The fact the powers-that-be at cricket's HQ are obviously avid readers of this column and often use it for inspiration for future legislation has inspired me to make another prediction for the way forward for the county game.

Let's not moan and whinge about the weather let's do something about it. Let's move all 18 counties to southern Spain. Most county members are retired and would welcome the warmer weather, while the arid conditions should help the development of spin bowling.

Ok, I accept that should have stayed in my head rather than appearing on the page but it's there now.

Ambitions

On a more serious note I think the time has come for us to look at how bonus points are awarded in the county championship. Cricket, like most sports should have at its heart winning and losing yet this season counties have often sought to collect points rather than win games. There is nothing wrong with a drawn game if a team does its utmost to win it first, but too often a day's rain realises more modest ambitions.

As it currently stands there are a possible eight bonus points to glean from each game, five for batting (a score of 400 is needed inside 130 overs for full points) and three for bowling (one each for three, six and nine wickets inside 130 overs). There are a further four points on offer for a draw. Many sides would consider a drawn game where they take 12 points a very good week's work.

Indeed, looking at this year's table, a team taking 12 points per game would be leading the championship by 12 points, which means hypothetically a team could win the championship without winning a single match.

One hopes the £500k on offer to the winning side will encourage sides to play more positively. Just to be on the safe side I'd have 16 points for a win and three for a draw with six bonus points up for grabs. On the batting side I'd have points for reaching 200 and 300 and a further point for averaging four runs per over across the innings. For bowling: a point for three and six wickets and a point for bowling a side out inside 100 overs.

A winning team taking all six bonus points would earn 25 points, while nine would be the most a team could garner with a draw. The result ought to be positive cricket and - when rain intervenes for a significant period for example - imaginative captaincy.

For those who argue the standards of pitches will deteriorate as teams prepare result surfaces, I would counter by making sure Pitch Liason Officers (PLOs) have full power to dock points for poor pitches.

Twenty20 has taken the one-day game to a new level now it's time for the four-day game to adjust itself to the new pace of life. First-class cricket is designed to prepare players for the cut and thrust of a Test arena where winning matches not playing for points is the order of the day.