"With the advent of more and more channels and digital television coming on stream there will be lots of air time to fill and the Championship might be just the thing to fit that bill."From this distance the Ashes are assuming a vast importance, though Peel denied that potential broadcasters and sponsors are waiting to see how England might do. It may also ask itself why it did not play two series of two matches each. The Championship may not necessarily figure large in negotiations but Peel is convinced it might have a television future. "That has now been whittled down and negotiations are ongoing with those left. We know the price we want for our game and ideally we would like to have it all signed and sealed by the end of the year."The rights to the game will revolve largely around Test matches.

Having decided last season not to have two divisions in the Championship the counties may be asked to change their minds. Nothing, however, will come into force before the year 2000.The Championship has not yet found a sponsor to replace Britannic, who may be, considering the number of mentions and identification with the product, among the more generous sponsors of all time. County secretaries both - or in Collier's case, chief executive - but not long enough to have become entrenched dinosaurs. They can still bring almost an outsider's view."We have reached the last four in every domestic competition this season and interest in Leicester is huge," said Collier.

"We are an integral part of a very big sporting success story which includes rugby and football." Attendances at Grace Road may not at first sight tend to support such bullishness but Collier pointed to the 5,000 members and, for the NatWest semi-final against Derbyshire, the highest attendance for more than 20 years.Codrington is cautiously optimistic and suspects it is probably time to be upbeat on the grounds that, who knows, the mood might spread. "We started off with 10 interested broadcasters and narrowcasters," he said. Richard Peel, the ECB's director of corporate affairs, said last week that interested parties may be biding their time until English cricket's new television deal is finalised. Middlesex's transitional period notwithstanding - and history shows they will be back shortly - Codrington said: "I think that the four-day game has got to be more competitive and that the introduction of the national league of two divisions is very good thing which will make the one-day game very attractive."The ECB and the counties will meet next month to try to agree on a vision of the future which does not necessarily constitute the status quo. Australia have always been a handful but the idea of England being beaten by 10 wickets by Sri Lanka in a Test, not to mention being dismantled in a one-day match, would not have persuaded any self- respecting bookmaker to offer odds a mere 20 years ago.Enough, for the moment, of the downbeat. There are reasons to be cheerful, as espoused by men like David Collier and Vinny Codrington. It is not as though it has suddenly become imbalanced and that down the long years all the counties have been well matched.