In the late 1980s the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) created a Structure Working Party under the chairmanship of Michael Murray to identify weaknesses in the structure of county cricket and suggest improvements.[4] It reported in 1992. Its main recommendations were the reduction of the County Championship from 22 matches a side to seventeen (each of the eighteen first-class counties playing each other once), all County Championship matches to be played over four days, the Sunday League to be extended from 40 overs a side to 50 overs, and the dropping of the zonal stage of the Benson & Hedges Cup, which would instead be played as a knockout.[5][6]
These changes were adopted in advance of the 1993 season by a vote of eleven to eight (with one abstention) at a special meeting of the TCCB on 19 May 1992.[7] Although it was agreed that the system should last for a minimum of three years, it was agreed to revert to a zonal system at the TCCB winter meeting on 8–9 December 1993. The changes were implemented in time for the 1995 season.[8]
