THE England and Wales Cricket Board has delayed an announcement on the domestic structure for 2011 until November 17 following disagreement at county level.
BBC Sport revealed last Friday that a consensus had emerged in favour of playing fewer Twenty20 matches.
But seven counties had voted against the proposals, and the ECB’s management board has not rubber-stamped the plan.
The ECB said its management board “has agreed to set up a small working party to finalise the domestic schedule.”
The working party will be chaired by ECB chief executive David Collier and will include representatives from the Professional Cricketers’ Association and what the ECB termed in a statement “the wider county game”.
The County Championship is almost certain to stay as 16 four-day contests in two divisions while the 40-over-a-side competition is expected to face minor alterations
But the sticking-point appears to be the Twenty20 competition after a summer where players faced a saturated fixture list which many found hard to swallow.

While players, their representatives, and many county chairmen are firmly supportive of cutting back from 16 group games to 10, some counties are totally opposed.
Counties such as Sussex, Somerset and Essex, who do not host international cricket, see floodlit home Twenty20 matches as their financial lifeblood.
According to a report in the Observer last weekend, Essex pulled in more than £500 000 in gate money from Twenty20 matches this summer.
Somerset’s chief executive Richard Gould said the Taunton-based club “would lose about £80 000 for every home game removed from the schedule”.
He added: “In time we may not be able to compete with the Test match grounds if there is a reduction. Our playing staff would have to be cut and we might end up on a vicious downward spiral.”
Various counties have faced financial difficulties this summer.
Surrey are set to make 20 of their off-field staff redundant in an attempt to plug a budget deficit, while Kent have had to deny rumours that they are in danger of going into administration. (BBC Sport)