Thanks to some great cricket from Australia and not so great stuff from England, I managed to grab a couple of extra days off last week. It gave me time to think about where we are going with the game as a whole. I think cricket is in pretty good health overall, but this is my six-point plan to make sure we keep moving in the right direction:

1 Fast-track umpires and raise their wages The standard of umpiring is as low as I’ve known it in 20 years. Yes, it is a difficult job and technology exposes any mistakes, but some of the performances in the Ashes series so far have been pretty ordinary. Players will accept that the odd bad decision gets through now and again. At the moment, there are just too many.

Of the present panel, Asad Rauf is pretty good and Simon Taufel isn’t bad. Rudi Koertzen has been a good umpire, but unfortunately his time has passed. Billy Bowden is inconsistent, which we saw at Headingley. I think Billy can be very good, but sometimes he gets a bit carried away.

Their attitude is crucial. Talking to players and having a friendly nature is imperative, not the “I’m the boss” schoolteacher approach of Daryl Harper — who is unpopular with players — and the attitude that they never make an error. Billy is another who cannot admit a mistake.

I don’t just want to bag these guys, so here are some constructive ideas:

• A couple of ex-players in Australia, Paul Reiffel and Rod Tucker, deserve to be promoted. In England, I reckon Neil Mallender is the best umpire along with Peter Willey. They improve the standard, but they need encouragement because they don’t want to spend a long time on the road. Richard Kettleborough is also good. In fact, England generally have the best umpires because they are ex-players who do a lot of games.

• Salaries should reflect the importance of the job. At the moment the elite umpires earn about $100,000 (about £60,000) per year. I would suggest a retainer, then a fee of $10,000 per Test and $5,000 for a Twenty20 game. The top blokes could get close to $300,000 in all.

• On technology, until the gimmicks and gadgets are 100 per cent foolproof I wouldn’t use them for anything except line decisions, unless the umpire has made such a howler that it becomes obvious on the first replay. In that case the third umpire should get on the walkie-talkie and tell his mate in the middle to change his decision.

2 End one-day internationals This is a big call, but cricket evolves and the 50-over game has passed its sell-by date. It’s amazing to think that after the Ashes series England and Australia play seven one-day games, which take about a month. Sorry, but that’s just greed on the part of administrators. From now on, we should be playing Tests and Twenty20 internationals, with a Twenty20 World Cup every two years.

What that could mean in England is a 16-match championship, which produces good, tough cricket at the moment, and the same for Twenty20. And, so that players and spectators know where they stand, let’s have a regular schedule — four-day games from Tuesday to Friday and the Twenty20 on Sunday with a double header each week for TV, games starting at 4pm and 7pm.

Four-day matches should start two hours later than they do at present, at 1pm finishing at 7.30pm. The best time to play in the UK is 5.30 to 7.30, so people could come down after work for the final session. I would introduce a Championship final, played over five days, between the top side in the first division and the winner of a play-off between the counties in second and third spots.

By also eliminating one-day cricket the players would be freed up to spend more time at domestic level, grass-roots cricket and time at home with families. Test cricket is just that — a test of every part of your game. Twenty20 is the entertainment and fun side of the game and also will bring in the big revenue. Under my plan a tour would last roughly five weeks: three Tests with a warm-up game and five Twenty20s in a ten-day period. The Ashes would stay as a five-match series.

3 Introduce a World Test Championship I’d be looking for two divisions, one side going up and down every two years. Those in the second division would just have to raise their game to get back among the best, but there is enough TV money in the game to make sure they don’t struggle financially, and stay viable.

4 Ban switch-hitting I’m with Michael Holding on this one. The day isn’t far off when a batsman takes guard left-handed, the bowler sets the field and the guy switches to become a right-hander. I’m all for players making the game more exciting, but this one just isn’t fair for the bowlers.

If switch-hitting cannot be banned, then the leg-before ruling must be tweaked so that a batsman changing his stance has a second off stump. An example should explain it: if the ball pitches outside what would normally be leg stump and goes on to hit the pad, that can still be leg-before as there is no leg stump. Basically, the ball always pitches outside off stump.

5 No rolling or sweeping the pitch once the game has started Like my previous idea, this one is designed to help bowlers, mainly spinners, and as most pitches are flat now, this can help bowlers. The groundsman should still mow the pitch daily to make sure there is the same level of grass for both teams. Otherwise, just let the surface deteriorate naturally and give the spinner a chance!

6 Create a window for the IPL I wonder if people in England realise how big the Indian Premier League is. I’ve read that it is the fourth biggest sporting event in the world in terms of value, estimated at around $1 billion. England are having to move away from early-May Tests because they are struggling to find opponents during a clash of dates with IPL. A gap of a month or six weeks fixed in the calendar would ease all potential problems and keep the players happy. The IPL is great for promoting cricket to new a audience. It isn’t a threat. It’s a brand to sell to the world.