The suggestion is that from 1998 the Minor Counties Championship, formed in 1895, considers the introduction of a number of 120-over one-innings games to run alongside the new County Board competition that is planned to succeed the Second XI Championship.
A similar proposal to play 110-over one-innings games was put to the minor county clubs last winter from within their own ranks. It was un- animously defeated.
Many county officials might be horrified at the prospect of the idea now becoming reality, but compromise is likely to dominate the MCCA thinking.
Having fought tooth-and-nail to preserve their status and historical background, they are unlikely to be dismissive of a plan that is for the general benefit of English cricket.
However the ECB target to merge the Minor Counties Championship with the new County Board competition in the year 2000 is on an altogether different agenda.
The MCCA have opposed such a move from the start, and backing it would sign the death warrant of their own championship, and possibly their ability to remain as bona-fide minor county clubs with their own memberships.
Longer innings should undoubtedly improve technique. Batsmen will have longer at the crease, and bowlers can concentrate on trying to dismiss batsmen, as well as containing them.
There will be less crash, bang, wallop cricket, though for a lot of followers, four innings in two days is one of the appeals. It is entertaining cricket with a spring in its step.
But whether the 120-over one-innings game is a better option than, say, three-day cricket remains to be seen.
Minor counties cricket is by and large an amateur game of high standard and it would be a retrograde step if the appeal for both a thriving spectator base and the players themselves diminishes.
Minor counties games are not played on Saturdays, only Sundays and midweek. Would bowlers accept the prospect of taking a day of their annual holiday leave sitting in the pavilion while their batsmen try to occupy the crease all day?
At the other extreme is a genuine fear that a high proportion of one-innings matches might not last the two days.
The ECB are also to encourage each minor county to play a stipulated number of players who are under the age of 25.
The MCCA are already ahead of them on that score. That particular idea has been floating around for some time and goes hand-in-hand with the success of the Minor Counties under-25 side in this season's AON Risk Services Trophy, and the MCCA's forward-thinking decision to introduce their own zonal under-25 competition this year.