Sussex chairman Jim May has expressed concerns over fresh reports the ECB is planning to introduce a new city-based Twenty20 tournament in 2017.

Sky is believed to have offered £40million for the rights to the competition which would be similar to Australia’s highly successful Big Bash League.

Sussex would not be considered as one of the host grounds for the new eight-team league which would be played in a three or four week block in the height of summer.

A proposal to reduce the County Championship from 16 to 12 games a season to make room for the new competition, which would run in addition to the NatWest T20 Blast which features all 18 counties, has also been mooted.

New ECB chairman Colin Graves is understood to be determined to force through the plan but can expect fierce opposition from the counties, especially those not based at Test-match grounds like Sussex.

May is set to discuss the plans with the ECB in the next few weeks before all the county chairman meet in September to decide on the way forward.

May said: “My understanding is that the ECB are conducting a review but nothing has been decided yet so I am quite bemused how this information got out.

“A working group is looking at a number of options which haven’t been presented to the counties yet so it is rather unfortunate these things have been floated without proper consultation.

“Tom Harrison (ECB chief executive) has come in with a strong media rights background and is convinced more money can be made by having a high profile Twenty20 competition but the question is how is that is achieved.

“While we are open-minded to potential options it is worth pointing out we have had sell-outs for the last three games and crowds across the country are up 30%. I’m convinced crowds would be even bigger if the competition started later in the summer.

“There is a long way to go before I could be convinced it is the best way to go and so much speculation is unhelpful. Let’s wait and see all the facts first but we are going to need a lot of convincing.”

The ECB only revamped the domestic Twenty20 competition last year with matches being played throughout the summer – mainly on Friday nights - rather than in a block.

After a mixed response from the public last season attendances have steadily grown this summer thanks to good weather and the presence of global stars like Chris Gayle at Somerset and Mahela Jayawardene at Sussex.

But the ECB have been influenced by the commercial success of the Big Bash in Australia and are confident a similar format – with teams based in London (two), Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Durham, Cardiff and Birmingham – would work in England. May said: “We will reserve judgment until we know all the facts but we have been working very hard to increase the number of people playing and watching cricket in the county and my concern is that any financial benefits from a franchise Twenty20 competition would be offset by a drop in interest.

“England is very different to Australia so there are issues with trying to supplant the Big Bash in this country. In Australia the population is concentrated in a few cities but there is a wider spread in England so that has to be taken into account.

“A franchise competition has worked in Australia and India but the dynamics in England are very different.

“Also it is interesting that if you look at which teams have made the quarter-finals of the NatWest T20 Blast only two of the eight – Birmingham and Lancashire – are mentioned as potential city franchises.

“As for cutting the number of Championship games, it would be ironic to introduce another competition into the schedule if there is a view we should be playing less cricket.”

Meanwhile, Sussex will attempt to get their Royal London One Day Cup campaign up and running at Hampshire today after yesterday’s opening match against Lancashire at Horsham was washed out without a ball being bowled.