Go figure!

The 18 first-class counties will face growing pressure to merge into six regional sides to contest a world-class Twenty20 league as English cricket searches frantically for its own high-powered answer to the Indian Premier League.

Amalgamating the counties into regional power blocks, and pitting them against the best clubs from the IPL, is being actively floated by the Professional Cricketers' Association as a compromise solution that will provide England with a world-class Twenty20 tournament and appease the counties, who are determined to ensure their own survival.

So, if I understand it right, England wants to put together a Twenty20 competition that will rival the IPL but will involves franchises playing the IPL???

Elsewhere in the article, this quote from Sean Morris

"We need to have a product that is exportable back to India, because that is where the money is. To do that you need India's agreement. You are going to need some of their top players. There is no reason why their franchisees wouldn't mind playing a few more games in England. That seems an entirely plausible option."

And elsewhere in the newspaper, these quotes from the very same Sean Morris

"This is a great opportunity for English cricket, an unbelievable chance for England to reassert itself," Morris said. "I just hope we take it. India, a big competitor, has got first to the market. Considering that we invented Twenty20, they should not have got there first. It is important that we act quickly.

and

"India now generates over 80% of revenue in world cricket if you add the IPL to the figures, and it can't be healthy to have that much power and influence in one area. We need to have an even keel. We have to stand on our own feet or we will get weaker and weaker. I am sure that South Africa and Australia feel the same way."

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And finally this line from David Hopps, that takes the cream

England has not dared to talk so openly about itself as a trusted custodian of the game since the heyday of the MCC.