THE last and most important of the summer's working parties published its report yesterday, preparing the way for the England and Wales Cricket Board to provide a modernised government of cricket from Jan 1.

A special meeting at Lord's on Sept 24 will be asked to disband the three-tier administration of the game - the Cricket Council, Test and County Cricket Board and National Cricket Association - and to replace it with a single governing body.

The working party, chaired by David Morgan of Glamorgan, has done its best to sharpen up the cricketing act without offending the many vested interests who between them scuppered modernisation plans last year.

The first-class and the recreational interests will continue to be separately represented within the new board, MCC will continue to have a seat at the table and the Minor Counties Cricket Association will continue too. The main business, however, will be conducted by a management board whose only full-time member will be the chief executive of the EWCB, Tim Lamb.

He and his commercially experienced chairman, Lord MacLaurin, will start appointing the permanent administrators of the new board later this year, though the corporate body, the England and Wales Cricket Board Ltd, will not come into being until Jan 1.

Morgan summed up his intentions thus: ``The new board will be far less of a closed shop. Cricket is followed by 10.6 million people and played by 1.5 million children. A single body can help create improved participation, performance and status.''