Thank you, West Indies. We know you never had much chance of winning that mini Test series in the cold and moisture of England in early summer; and we know that there is one more of those old-fashioned 50-over internationals still to be played, at Edgbaston tomorrow. But after that, like everyone else, you can concentrate on the game of today, the crash-bash Chris Gayle sort of game. The one that really brings in the shekels.

Today marks the start of the next phase of the Twenty20 boom. First, a dollop of matches in the domestic tournament; then the ICC World Twenty20, commendably packed into only 17 days from June 5 to 21, unlike the apparently endless IPL. (Has it finished, by the way? I'm afraid I don't care.) While the latest fever burns in mid-June, stoked up by the sort of marketing never lavished on other competitions, the LV County Championship will jog along in the background, a respite for the traditionally minded, like Radio 3 for those weary of the brashness of Radio 1.

That the Test series for the Ashes will, touch wood, eclipse everything eventually will not mean that the boom has finished, even in a recession. Far from it because, next year the ECB is resolved to put even more eggs into the Twenty20 basket. One of the purposes of this year's T20 will be to determine who plays in the first division of next year's brave but as yet fog-bound new venture, the P20.

Steve Elworthy, the former Lancashire and South Africa swing bowler, who is directing the World Twenty20, is, The Times can reveal, also to be appointed director of the P20. It is, as yet, no more than a working title according to John Perera, the ECB's commercial director, who hopes that, unlike the present county Twenty20, it will be sponsored by one leading company.

“In time we hope it will establish a strong identity, like the Heineken Cup in rugby,” Perera said. “The new tournament is a work in progress which will have two major sources of revenue, broadcasting and sponsorship. We are already in discussion with a possible anchor sponsor.” It will be a sizeable investment, but not so big as the one required from whoever is to replace Vodafone as the commercial face of the England team. Again, Perera is quietly confident. “We have to be realistic in the present climate but the market for cricket remains very healthy.”

Little has yet been decided about the P20, other than that it will probably occupy the prime spot in the cricketing summer, June. Otherwise the counties have been told little except that, by creating two divisions, it will immediately demote nine clubs to second-class citizenship. The top two counties in the first division will qualify for the potentially even more lucrative Champions Trophy.

There will, initially at least, be promotion and relegation for three P20 teams (their positions decided by the placings in this year's Twenty20 Cup) but by putting the emphasis on the top nine teams it seems that the ECB board is trying to copy the IPL, instead of building on the solid start it has itself made since pioneering Twenty20 in 2003. The present T20 will continue to run in late season, based on its existing three-league format.

The public taste for this form of the game is not in doubt but if, as they claim, the marketing surveys carried out for the ECB suggested a desire for more of the same, the alternative solution was to guarantee a home game for counties every two weeks during the first two thirds of the season. The likes of Essex and Sussex, have built a regular audience for floodlit summer evening cricket.

The board is in danger of falling heavily between two stools: giving the new tournament a spurious glamour by encouraging the counties to pay a lot of money to overseas players, but, having rejected the franchise path, leaving them to find their own sponsors.

A league played either under lights on Fridays, or in sunshine on Saturdays, through the first two thirds of the season would have been attractive and better for the players than two competitions played to the same format. Home games for the clubs finishing top of the four preliminary groups would have been virtually certain sell-outs and there would have been a case for leaving the existing climax of the competition as it is, with semi-finals and finals on the same ground on the same day.

That way we would at last have got round to three county competitions - Championship, 50 over and Twenty20 . Thereby professional cricket in Britain might at last have achieved the tremendous and long overdue bonus of establishing a county fixture list that is coherent, that everyone understands and that leaves room for the recovery, practice and preparation that the players and coaches crave. Once again, in reality, they are not going to get it.