AFTER years of attempting to chip away at the significance of the County Championship, it seems the England and Wales Cricket Board is to finally get its way.

On January 23, the county chief executives will meet at Lord's to discuss the details but however high the level of dissent between them, it seems there is nothing they can do to stop the recommendations of the Morgan Report being adopted.

If – when – the report passes through this final stage of acceptance, the county season will be subject to yet another drastic and substantial change from 2014.

The number of Championship matches will be reduced from 16 to 14, 50-over cricket will return in place of the 40-over competition with a reduction from 12 to 10 fixtures and the number of twenty20 group matches will increase from 10 to 14.

Those were the recommendations in the report submitted by former ECB chairman David Morgan which was accepted in principle by the ECB board this week.

It is far from the first time a report has been put to the counties suggesting changes to the pattern of a county season.

Only two years ago, they were asked for their views on proposals for a new-look Championship but overwhelmingly sent back the message that a 16-game, two-division format was still their preference. What has changed?

The counties also decided that the 16-game t20 competition adopted in 2010 was over-egging the pudding and that we should go back to 10 from 2012. What has changed?

The difference this time is that the ECB has decided, presumably because it has not got what it wanted previous times, that the county veto should not apply this time.

Effectively, the chief executives are to be presented with a fait accomplis on January 23, though they will have the opportunity to work out how best a 14-match Championship season will work.

How could it possibly work in a way that guarantees a satisfactory outcome?

A first division of eight counties and a second division of 10 is one of the options, which will mean the counties in the top division play each other twice but still leave a lop-sided second section.

How can you proclaim a side the best in the division if, by a quirk of the fixture planning, they have played the weaker sides twice but the stronger sides only once?

"I remember when I first started playing," said head coach Karl Krikken. "There were 24 fixtures per team and you played some twice and some once.

"It was definitely not fair and they changed it again a couple of years later."

It is hard to escape the feeling that the proposal for a reduced Championship on such terms is part of a sustained campaign to reduce its relevance.

That is even though, generally speaking, it is the form of the game the members prefer and that the county players still regard as the true test of their skills as cricketers.

It should be the non-negotiable central core of county cricket but has become increasingly marginalised on the fixture list by turning a month at the height of summer over to t20 and now it is to have its integrity undermined.

It is not even as if the Championship does not fulfil its primary aim – producing players for Test cricket.

"England are the best Test team in the world, aren't they?" added Krikken. "We can't be doing too badly."

The needs of international cricket have been further placated by the switch back to 50-over one-dayers, to mirror the international game.

This is an easy argument to accept, even though 50-over cricket is perhaps less of a spectacle than 40.

What it means is earlier starts and 10 more overs in the middle of the innings of nudging ones and twos but the switch is understandable.

One concern Derbyshire were keen to address when the Morgan proposals were raised was whether this was another attempt to reduce the number of first-class counties by the back door.

As the smallest of the counties, Derbyshire will always be in the firing line if a reduction is mooted but chief executive Keith Loring was assured that was not an option.

"I raised the question over the phone and face to face and I was told there was categorically no move to reduce the number of first-class counties," he said.

"It is 18 by statute and that's the way it will stay."

That is a comfort for Derbyshire supporters but they will join with followers of the other counties in hoping that when these changes come in, the ECB at least has the good grace to stick with them for longer than a year or two.

The Morgan Report will provoke debate and divide opinion but constant chopping and changing does no-one connected with the game any good.