PROPOSALS to restructure local cricket in the Greater Manchester area have sparked much debate and interest from the many clubs from the Bolton and Bury areas who play in the leagues.

Clubs from the 10 leagues in the area met at Old Trafford on Saturday, November 8, to discuss the idea and officials of the leagues were due to meet on Thursday, November 20, for further discussion.

Below is a statement on the subject issued by the chairman of the Lake Garage Central Lancashire League, Neville Fletcher:

"THE Central Lancashire Cricket League has been aware for a number of years of the need to bring about changes in the way that cricket is organised, to take into account the social, work and family issues our players face in a modern society.

Innovation and change is something we have always embraced as a league, demonstrated by us being among the first to introduce limited overs cricket and Sunday fixtures.

In recent years we arranged two working parties in an attempt to bring about some of the changes the players of our member clubs sought.

Discussions were always lively and engaging without the definitive solution we were seeking. However in 2011 we embarked upon a two stage approach to bring about change, aimed at raising standards and giving all our clubs competitive cricket.

Firstly we divided our member clubs into two separate leagues of eight, with two up/two down for the 2013 season based on the final league positions of the 2012 season.

Thereafter we advertised for clubs from other leagues to join us, with a target of attracting a further eight clubs to enable us to become an organisation with two leagues of 12 with promotion and relegation.

As we have a very large geographical spread of clubs across the whole of Greater Manchester, and we have among our members a large number of the premier clubs in the area, we felt we had an attractive proposition.

Eventually we received nine applications, and following inspections and withdrawals we ended up with two clubs – Elton and Heyside – agreeing to join us for the 2015 season, leaving us six clubs short of our objective.

During the course of 2014, and to date, we have been aware of and have attended meetings to explore the possibilities of creating a Premier League structure within Greater Manchester, similar to others that operate in other parts of our region and across the country.

We are aware that the English Cricket Board prefer local cricket to be structured in this manner, and in other parts of the country it has been generally restructured by either building around a strong league, as is the case in the Liverpool area, or by amalgamating all of the leagues in the area under a completely new administration, as is the case in Leicestershire and Rutland.

Our member clubs have been kept informed of progress by the CLL Management Committee at our regular meetings, and also directly by the Lancashire Cricket Board which has taken an advisory and facilitator's role in the process.

Obviously, with the level of change being proposed and discussed, there are some concerns and differing opinions, not only among our member clubs, but also among club officials at grass root level.

As the custodians and administrators of the Central Lancashire Cricket League the management committee believe it is our duty to listen to representatives of our member clubs and act accordingly.

Until the meeting facilitated by the LCB on Saturday, November 8, 2014, there had been no clear or firm view of how the future may look.

Our member clubs have mandated us as a management committee to explore other options and to continue in our efforts to attract other clubs.

In the light of the recent meeting we, as a management committee, will have full representation at the follow-up meeting for league officials on November 20.

Following this meeting we are committed to arranging an extraordinary meeting of the Central Lancashire Cricket League to fully discuss this whole topic, its implications, and proposed next steps, with our member clubs, and in line with our constitution we will take instruction from them.

Given the current momentum of the project we would endeavour to hold this meeting before Christmas.

We have been clearly one of the prime movers in the area in bringing about change and we remain fully committed to finding the right way forward for the game that we all love and cherish."