Twenty20 is bound to have the biggest single impact on cricket in the sport's long history - and English administrators must make sure they stay ahead of the game.

That advice comes from an interested party, in Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes, who rates the arrival of Twenty20 as more significant than the Kerry Packer revolution which rocked the game in the 1970s.

Cumbes was a professional cricketer - and footballer - himself back then but believes the consequences of Twenty20 for today's players will be far greater than those of the World Series ever were.

Cumbes and several of his fellow county administrators had their say Friday on suggestions - attributed to Professional Cricketers' Association chief executive Sean Morris - that an English Premier League will include just eight teams.

Long-established counties would therefore have to merge to make up the Twenty20 elite.

It is a format which finds broad favour with many although most county bosses, Cumbes included, do not want their club to be one of those which has to compromise.

Irrespective of exactly how English cricket responds to the Indian Premier League and the Indian Cricket League - and the riches of Texan billionaire Allen Stanford, who may be prepared to bankroll an equivalent - Cumbes has no doubt how big a deal this is.

Asked whether it is likely to prove even more of a watershed than the broadcast contracts of the Packer era, he said: "I think it is, yes.

"The Packer revolution was mainly about TV and TV rights, giving players more money.

"This is not only about giving players more money, but it is also about changing the face of the game in terms of spectator interest."

Cumbes senses cricket's global appeal could be about to mushroom.

"I was even reading in the paper this morning that there is a Twenty20 game taking place in North Korea," he added.

"They are also talking about China, the (United) States.

"All of a sudden, this is something much different to what we have had before.

"It's always been in that narrow margin of the countries that play cricket. I think we are starting to look outside and beyond that now."

In that context, parochial concerns - such as Roses rivalry and the prospect of Yorkshire ever clubbing together with Lancashire - may have to be overcome.

Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove uses a near-universal football analogy to illustrate those sensitivities.

"It is difficult to see Hampshire and Sussex being the same team, as it is with Yorkshire and Lancashire, because it would be like putting Arsenal and Tottenham together," he reasoned.

The reactions of Yorkshire and Durham chief executives Stewart Regan and David Harker were also telling.

"I don't think Yorkshire and Lancashire would play as a merged side," Regan spelled out.

"That wouldn't appeal to me, I don't think it would appeal to our fans, and it certainly wouldn't appeal to our players.

"I don't want to take Yorkshire into something that involves a new identity and mixing up with other teams.

"We are Yorkshire County Cricket Club and we want to be part of the solution, not jumping in with AN Other party."

Cumbes and Bransgrove are instinctively of similar mind, although slightly less entrenched.

So what about the smaller clubs who may have to adapt?

Harker seems disinclined to do so, saying: "My gut reaction is to be dead set against it - to throw us into a bucket with Yorkshire and Lancashire would be wrong."

But Derbyshire's Tom Sears offers hope, reasoning Twenty20 could turn out to be a unifying force - even across those problematic county borders.

"It is the one competition where you can cross over, because we have pulled in a new fan base," he said.

"Traditions aren't so entrenched for people who watch Twenty20 cricket.

"It has brought so many new people in who have not set foot in a cricket ground before."

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