PAUL NEWMAN: Shame on ECB for undermining the brilliant Vitality Blast

Why would you actively seek to destroy one of the most successful innovations of the last 20 years? Why would you completely undermine a competition that has revolutionised county cricket and become more and more popular with each passing year?

For that is what the ECB have done with the Vitality Blast. That is what they have done to the Twenty20 game they introduced to the world but have handled so badly they have now invented a shorter, inferior format in the hope that will catch on instead.

There is no other explanation for this year's scheduling of what has long since become the most important and lucrative competition for the 18 counties, culminating in this week's Blast quarter-finals.

First came group games outside of school holidays and at an early point in the season, almost as if the ECB wanted to make it harder for a young audience to attend. 

Now what should be four showpiece quarter-finals this week have been scheduled up against England's T20s with India, almost guaranteeing they will be completely overshadowed. And, most significantly, devoid of England players.

The first T20 meeting between heavyweights Surrey and Yorkshire should have been a showpiece occasion, the very best of what county cricket can offer. 

But it was diluted by the absence of five Yorkshire players on international duty, resting or, in the case of Adil Rashid, on the Hajj pilgrimage. It would have been worse had David Willey not been released by England at the last minute.

Equally, what should be a big night at Old Trafford on Friday will be lessened by the absence of five England players from the Lancashire line-up facing Essex.

Publicity, at least from the mainstream media, will be negligible. There are no such issues for the