DURHAM chief executive David Harker and his Yorkshire counterpart Stewart Regan have made it clear they do not favour unification with long-standing opponents as plans to create a streamlined Twenty20 Premier League in England gather pace.

England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive David Collier yesterday confirmed the ECB is on course to create its own version of the Indian Premier League by the year 2010.

With a blaze of public and player interest as well as large amounts of money flooding the IPL the talk of a domestic equivalent in England has become a hot topic in recent days.

American billionaire Sir Allen Stanford has spoken of his belief that cricket could become the world's dominant team sport, while also offering to invest heavily in an ECB-sponsored initiative to promote the format.

And it now seems the ECB are firming up plans for their own English Premier League with the backing of Stanford.

Any plans for merging counties, however, have received a mixed response.

It will be the cricketing equivalent of Arsenal and Tottenham combining, according to Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove.

Bransgrove and Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes may fall into a less entrenched bracket than their counterparts in this region - although all appear sceptical at best over becoming a regional band of brothers.

There is no need to secondguess Regan.

I don't think Yorkshire and Lancashire would play as a merged side,'' he said.

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.'' Durham boss Harker is equally disinclined to cede his county's growing brand.

My gut reaction is to be dead set against it for a couple of reasons,'' he said.

To throw us into a bucket with Yorkshire and Lancashire would be wrong.

We are 90 miles from Headingley and 120 miles from Old Trafford.

So what connection do we have with those places?'' At the centre of Regan's rationale is the depth of tradition and marketability of cricket in his county.

We have probably got the strongest identity of any of the counties," said Regan.

Yorkshire people are Yorkshire through and through. The chant in Yorkshire at football, cricket or rugby grounds is 'Yorkshire, Yorkshire'.

Our identity is very strong. A North team just doesn't have an identity.'' Regan is predictably anxious that his club makes the most of the land of opportunity.

If you were to divide the country into, say, eight zones, to participate in this Super League, then Yorkshire - given the size of it - could quite easily be one of those zones in its entirety,'' he said.

Greater London could possibly be another one.

This is a county with 1,000 cricket clubs. Fifteen per cent of the cricket played in the country is played in Yorkshire, and there are five million people in the county - so we have something different here to other counties.'' Regan unsurprisingly prescribes a condensed Twenty20, with mergers elsewhere, placing Yorkshire and other clubs with Test grounds at the centre.