IT was heralded as a great day for Lancashire Cricket.

No, it wasn't the day that John Crawley reached double figures in this season's championship.

And it clearly wasn't the day that Lancashire decided to embrace next season's divisional structure by deciding to play half a crucial season without an overseas player, while their other international stars were away on England duty.

It was the day that the English Cricket Board accepted the Liverpool and District Competition as the first premier league in Lancashire.

Ignore, for a moment, the fact that the competition is not even based in Lancashire.

Also disregard the fact that the decision represented an embarrassing climb down by the ECB, who had previously ruled the Liverpool Competition as unsuitable to be called a premier league.

And do not try to come to terms with the notion that this is to be the FIRST premier league, with the Northern League set to follow suit. (Will one then adopt the title Inferior Premier League?)

Instead, concentrate on the repercussions - the complete disruption of local league cricket in Lancashire.

The Ribblesdale League is considering becoming a feeder league for the Northern League and I cannot wait to set off to Kendal for a 60-over game at 9am on a Saturday morning (never mind the domestic discussions that will surely follow).

The possibility of a merger between the Lancashire League and the Central Lancashire League has been mentioned.

Exactly why a league that has vehemently opposed the premier league concept should consider this route is beyond me.

I also feel that the Lancashire League rules have been needlessly tampered with as a half-hearted gesture of compliance with the ECB's appallingly misdirected revolution of recreational cricket.

Despite the formation of a confederation to protect the interests of local leagues, there are signs that the entirely appropriate defiance that the premier league notion initially generated is evaporating.

And for what?

For the meagre £1,000 that Liverpool Competition clubs will receive next year?

So that the cream of Lancashire amateur talent (with the exception of one single Lancashire League player, of course) can be humbled by Holland in the NatWest Trophy?

The grand plan is that youngsters watching a better standard of amateur cricket will want to play the game, stay in the game and then win Test matches for England in front of four men and their hot dogs while the rest of country watch the real future of cricket - the one-day game - on TV.

Personally, I played cricket because I enjoyed the feeling of hitting a six or hitting the stumps.

I loved watching Allan Border on Alexandra Meadows playing for my local side.

Today's options are not so enticing. Hit a tennis ball for six at school and then hitch a ride to Bootle.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.