RECENTLY I have been wondering how many members of cricket clubs whose league is involved in the proposed Greater Manchester League discussions really appreciate the consequences to their league.

If this proposed structure actually happens some may not care, but I feel the majority do.

The structure would most probably consist of a Premier League, a second tier of two leagues, a third tier of three or four leagues and a fourth tier of minor leagues.

If formed with 12 clubs in each league then a committee of wise, unbiased men will have to allocate clubs to these leagues, based on recent performance, size of ground, quality of facilities etc.

Suppose your league is allocated, say, two or three clubs in the Premier, five or six clubs in the second tier, and the remainder in the other two tiers.

If this allocation is accepted then in that instant of acceptance your league becomes extinct. Gone.

No more Bolton Association, Bolton League, Central Lancashire League, Lancashire County League or Saddleworth League.

Well run, long established leagues. And for what?

Probably the most important fact to be considered is what about the clubs that do not want to join a structure that stretches from Glossop to Standish, Rochdale to Wythenshawe?

They will be left with no league to play in, just like four clubs from the Manchester and District Association which started this whole process off.

It all started on the April 15, 2013 when a meeting was called at the Lancashire Cricket Board, inviting six designated Greater Manchester leagues to attend and discuss “various issues facing league cricket in Greater Manchester”.

At this meeting the Manchester and District Association stated they were in trouble, and subsequently ceased to exists at the end of the 2013 season.

That left the aforementioned four clubs with no league to play in.

Apparently no one at the Lancashire Cricket Board or the Manchester and District Association had met to discuss and try to solve the problems that were being experienced for some time.

I have attended every meeting since then, except for one which was mainly for clubs, and this question was never raised, instead the solution that was proposed was to restructure the whole of league cricket in Greater Manchester. And so the process began.

It occurs to me that Baldrick – that well known finder of solutions in the TV series Black Adder – would probably have said: “Sire, I have a cunning plan, to solve this problem we should break up five well run, long established leagues.”

The last article in the 2014 Lancashire Cricket Board handbook was entitled “Death of a Cricket League” chronicling the history of the Manchester and District Association, an excellent piece which touches on the problems faced, especially the fact that the more affluent Cheshire clubs eventually joined the Cheshire leagues and the Merseyside clubs joined the Liverpool Competition.

But, as it states, the Manchester and District Association never had the ties that bound the Bolton Association, Bolton League, Lancashire League and the Central Lancashire League.

Is the solution worse than the problem?

Keep your pen handy you could be writing further obituaries.

Frank Jackson

Chairman Bolton and District Cricket Association