THE Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), the representative body for England’s Test and county cricketers, has asked the ECB to reduce the number of hours and overs bowled each day in county championship matches.

Jason Ratcliffe, the PCA’s director of player services, said yesterday: “The feedback from the players has been unanimous in that they would like the domestic structure to reflect that in international cricket. A reduction in hours of play is one of the topics we are discussing with the ECB. There is a feeling that there is too much cricket and the players want to see an improvement in the quality.”

At present, a minimum of 104 overs are bowled in a 6½ hour day of county cricket, while 90 overs is the stipulation in a Test match day, which is scheduled to last for six hours. Playing time can overrun in both forms of the game if the quota of overs is not completed within the time limit.

The proposal drew scorn from Alec Bedser, the great former Surrey and England bowler, who played at a time when a six-hour day would contain well over 110 overs. “Soon they will not want to play at all,” he said. “Why can they not bowl their overs quicker? We used to bowl 19 overs in the opening hour [which is four or five more than the norm now].

“I do not understand how modern cricketers can improve by playing less. I have been putting these points for 30 years but have never had any answers. The administrators are too worried about what the players think.”

The reduction in playing time is one recommendation in a review that also focuses on the structure of the three limited-overs competitions and comes in the wake of a request last year by the first-class umpires to extend the 40-minute lunch and 20-minute tea interval, as they feel they have scant time for a break given that they are last to leave the field and first back on to it.

The PCA’s review has gone to Hugh Morris, who is in overall charge of the cricket department at the ECB. A change in the playing conditions, such as the hours of play, could be implemented during the coming close-season, but any alteration to a limited-overs competition might not come into effect until at least 2008.

Alan Fordham, the ECB’s head of operations for first-class cricket, rejects any suggestion that cricketers want to play less. “I do not think their motivation is a shorter working day,” he said. “They are thinking of the quality.”

One possibility is that playing hours will be shortened to three two-hour sessions, in line with Test matches, which would result in up to 14 overs being lost in the day. On the first three days of a championship match, the first session lasts 2¼ hours and the second, depending on the over-rate, at least that length. Invariably tea is taken late, on account of tardy over-rates, and hence the close of play is after 6.30, by which time a number of spectators have left the ground.

“The PCA is suggesting a scheduled finish at 6pm and although on the face of it, condensing a day’s play into three two-hour sessions looks a good idea, there would have to be consideration given to carrying over time lost into the next day,” Fordham said.

“We also understand where the umpires are coming from, but we turned down their request for longer meal breaks last winter because in putting on a cricket match we are also presenting an event.”

Cricket is unique among sports in stopping play for lunch and for tea, which has not always been a part of the game. Strange as it may seem, the tea interval originated not at Lord’s or at a public school or at Fenner’s or the Parks, but in Australia in 1881. After captaining England on tours there Arthur Shrewsbury would give orders for tea to be brought to him at certain times during play. The umpires were never consulted over the implementation of a tea break.