Former England captain Alastair Cook prepared for County Championship to be axed in wake of Covid-19 pandemic

Former England captain Alastair Cook says he is prepared to see this year’s County Championship written off to ensure domestic cricket’s more lucrative short-form tournaments are played in their entirety.

The County Championship was due to begin on April 12, but the ECB announced this week that no domestic cricket will be played until at least May 28 amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Even if the sport is able to resume at that point, the season will be significantly shortened and organisers have confirmed that “most financially important forms of the game” - the T20 Blast competition and the new Hundred tournament - will take precedence.

Cook is due to be a key part of the Essex side looking to defend their title in the longer four-day format, says he would rather see the competition sacrificed altogether than played out in a condensed form.

"In this year, over the next six months, the bigger picture is the most important," Cook told BBC Radio 5 Live. "Whatever happens, if we do play any sort of cricket which hopefully we will, what I hope is that they don't try and have a six-game County Championship or something like that.

"I would rather have one or two full tournaments, because if you do then play that tournament or two tournaments it is so much more rewarding to win it.

"If there is not time for a meaningful County Championship, say three or four games, there is probably not much sense us having it.

"I would rather concentrate on two full tournaments rather than saying we have four tournaments that we need to play, let's get them all in even if we have to shorten them.

"I think you would rather have two tournaments played full length so that the there is meaningful cricket at the end of it."

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