If you listen to the word on the street – before the results of the KNCB’s consultative exercise with the clubs are made known – it seems as if there may be more support for the introduction of a regional two-day competition than for a two-day element in the Hoofdklasse.

Should that prove to be the case, do the arguments for a restructuring of the top flight of club (as distinct from representative) cricket then fall by the wayside?

Yes, you might think – if we introduce a three- or four-team regional competition under two-day ‘grade rules’, reshaping the Hoofdklasse isn’t necessary any more.

But there are good grounds for reaching the opposite conclusion, and for taking the view that the proposals of the Top Cricket Nederland steering group, or a modified version of them, offer enough advantages in themselves to be taken seriously with or without a two-day element.

One of the guiding ambitions of TCN’s rethink of the domestic structure is to make the top levels more competitive and intense, in order to prepare young Dutch cricketers better for the demands of the international game.

And their proposals ingeniously offer a much tauter set-up than at present, while giving clubs plenty of opportunity to earn a place at the highest level of the competition.

Six-team ‘Champions’ and ‘Premier’ Leagues would mean that clubs would play more consistently against sides of their own standard: the top six would not play against each other much more often than at present, but they would not be playing against sides which are markedly weaker, and every game would be played under maximum pressure.

Similarly, teams which currently struggle in the Hoofdklasse would be in competition with the top sides from the Eerste Klasse.

Add to that a play-off system which would involve ten of the top twelve clubs, and it’s obvious that the proposals could yield a much more competitive framework than at present, even if it did not encourage the further movement of gifted players towards the leading clubs.

The proposed structure would, of course, mean that the competition would be a good deal more compressed: whereas the Hoofdklasse currently involves 18 regular matches, with the top four playing an extra one or two games, a six-team league would involve only 10, with most clubs playing two or three play-off matches.

For those not involved in the regional competition – which would give the top players another four or six days’ cricket – this would therefore mean a significant reduction in the amount of league cricket they played.

But it would, on the other hand, give a valuable extra element of flexibility in the domestic programme. If the regional competition were played on Saturday-Sunday, as it clearly ought to be, then that and the top one-day leagues would occupy sixteen playing days, or 14 weekends plus the traditional Ascension Day and Pentecost holidays.

With a season extending from May to August providing 17 or 18 weekends, that would leave some room for the increasing number of international fixtures, plus perhaps the final stages of the Twenty20 competitions.

There remains a great deal to talk about, but the clubs should certainly not be encouraged to see the introduction of a regional two-day competition as an alternative to a reform of the highest level of club cricket.