Counties focus on new 50-over format The domestic one-day competition has traditionally been played throughout the season but counties have opted for a restructuring of the fixture list which will see the first 16 rounds of County Championship matches start on Sundays, Friends Life t20 matches played on Fridays starting from mid-May and the group matches of the new 50-over competition played between July 26 and Aug 21. Counties agreed to scrap the popular Yorkshire Bank 40, won for the last time by Nottinghamshire last week, in favour of a 50-over one-day domestic competition in the belief that it would better prepare players for the format played at international level. But England's five one-day internationals against Sri Lanka will have been completed more than a month before the new domestic competition starts and the five one-dayers against India are scheduled to start on Aug 25, the day before the quarter-finals of the 50-over tournament. A provisional fixture schedule was agreed by counties at a meeting at Lord's last week and shows the first round of County Championship matches starting on April 6, four days earlier than this season, and ending on Sept 26, a day earlier than this year. The late finish to the season means the winners and runners-up of the domestic Twenty20 competition will not be able to play in the Champions League which is scheduled to be start on Sept 9. Twenty20 finals day is scheduled for Aug 23 and the 50-over final for Sept 20. Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India re-elected Narayanaswamy Srinivasan as president for another year yesterday despite a court order preventing him from assuming power immediately. Srinivasan, 68, stood down in June in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League, which led to the arrest of his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan on charges relating to the scandal. A petition was filed in the Supreme Court by the Cricket Association of Bihar, seeking Srinivasan's ousting from cricket administration, but the court refused to halt the elections. It barred the president from taking charge until it has ruled on the protest.