Stubbornness to cost the domestic game once again?

After every defeat for the English cricket team the papers are full of boring old cliches asking how the country that invented the game can be so poor at it.

The English summer sport has been taken and perfected by the other Test playing nations.
Sadly it seems this ability to invent but not innovate is stifling the English game once more as officials struggle to deal with the future of another English invention - Twenty/20 cricket.

English county sides look set to miss out on the lucrative Champions League after IPL commissioner Lalit Modi refused to change the dates of the tournament despite the fact it clashes with the end of the English season.

Such an act is an indication of the growing power the IPL has over world cricket.

Seven years ago the ECB and the counties struck upon a brilliant idea to revitalise the domestic game with the invention of the Twenty/20 Cup. It proved a master stroke as bigger crowds and new excitement breathed fresh life into English cricket. The game soon spread is now a worldwide phenomenon.

But while the authorities have stood back and admired their handy work, the rest of the cricket world has sought to innovate and maximise the new game's money-making potential.

Where better than India, where cricket is big business, to perfect the Twenty/20 competition? The IPL did just this.

The IPL's success gave the authorities in England the perfect chance to modify the domestic game accordingly. But once again the archaic and rigid county structure has held the game back.

After the inaugural IPL the MCC's chief executive Keith Bradshaw and the Surrey chairman David Stewart suggested a tournament comprising of nine franchised teams. They would play 57 matches over 25 days at the Test grounds, but the sides would include representatives of other counties.

It was a chance to take aspects from the IPL and apply them to the English game in a truly revolutionary way. Revenue streams would have also been shared between all the counties - including the minor ones.

But in an act of self-preservation, stubbornness and short-sightedness the proposal was rejected, so an opportunity was missed.

Instead we have watched the IPL boat go by and become such a successful and influential behemoth that Modil could end up dictating the English domestic fixture list.

There is no doubt some of the smaller counties need more funds to survive, but I can't help feeling they have missed a glorious opportunity.

By rejecting the EPL proposal in what they thought was an act of self-preservation, they might have sealed their own fates.

Meanwhile, England are set to face Bangladesh in a test series. The cricket odds suggest the visitors should win comfortably, but the Tigers have been improving steadily over the last few years.

If Bangladesh do manage to upset the cricket betting and win, or even just tie, the series, it is likely Andrew Strauss' decision to miss the tour will be further criticised.