Final format confirmed for Scotland's national leagues from 2011

Cricket Scotland has reached a final decision on the structure of the national league from season 2011, and has written to all participating clubs to outline the final form that they will take, following months of consultation and refinement.

In its efforts to produce a less pressurised format to encourage 'whole-club development', the governing body has settled on two leagues of 16 clubs. After the initial round-robin of 15 competitive matches, both leagues will split into four four-team mini-leagues based on the rankings from the first part of the season, and will play a further three matches to determine the final positions in the tables.  The structure will complement the new regional competition which starts this April, helping to bridge the gap between the recreational game and the Scotland team .

In the latest round of consultations, five of the 30 clubs responded, each expressing varying levels of concern about the previous proposal, arguing that the proposals needed further thought and club endorsement.

Cricket Scotland's professional staff and competitions committee has taken on board all the comments and observations made, and are now preparing to publish the final structure, to be distributed to clubs by March 19.

Cricket Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith (pictured) commented: "There is a fear here that we debate this issue forever. We have to accept that we will never please everyone, but I believe that the original proposal received a strong mandate from the clubs and the amended one was generally well received, with a few exceptions.

"We do not want to be dictatorial to our clubs and we have listened to all the feedback and changed our proposals as a result. But the time is now right to draw a line under this and look ahead to the coming season and the new structure from 2011. The clubs have strongly supported the principles of whole club development, and we believe this new structure will aid clubs willing to invest in their long term future.

"We will meet with the feeder leagues to discuss the practicalities of making this work, but believe we have found workable solutions to ensure the three games in the final three weeks of the season will avoid disruption to the feeder league schedules.