THE County Cricket League is backing a drive to find and retain more neutral umpires.

The league is prioritising its grants towards umpiring courses – which means less money will be available for coaching, training and ground preparation.

The league is also looking at the possibility of giving incentives to clubs who get retired players into umpiring.

It's a push that is already paying off.

In the past, only Division One matches have been officiated by neutral umpires.

Soon, however, there could be enough neutral umpires to cover Division Two matches as well.

"No one would claim they don't make mistakes, but neutral umpires are obviously a good thing because they take the heat out of games," said County cricket development manager Mr Silk.

Next season, the County League will be restructuring its divisions to ensure it has no more than 90 clubs.

That is likely to mean five or six clubs from Division Nine effectively being relegated back to district feeder leagues.

Fielding circles also look set to be introduced to the humble village green.

The idea of the circles is to make fielding captains attack more, by forcing them to keep four fielders inside the circle at all times.

The County League wants to go even further by insisting that fielding sides should have a maximum five fielders on the leg side at any one time.

The other proposal up for discussion is a change in the number of overs a bowler can bowl.

Currently, a bowler is permitted to bowl 12 overs out of an innings of 45 overs.

The league now wants to change that maximum figure to nine overs per bowler.

Member clubs will get to vote on the proposals at the next AGM.

Steve Silk said: "We want to bring Gloucestershire more in line with other areas. The fielding restrictions mean there are more gaps for batsmen to score runs.

"Changing the number of overs someone can bowl is all about getting more people involved in the game. At the moment, clubs only really need three or four bowlers. No wonder people are dropping out of cricket if they're batting at number seven or eight and not getting a bowl."