Kent captain Rob Key has spoken out in defence of four-day, two-divisional county cricket following suggestions that chief executives at certain clubs and some ECB officials want a return to three-day championship games and a three conference system that does away with promotion and relegation.

Though Kent are languishing in eighth place in Division 1, according to Key they are playing high quality cricket and fighting hard to maintain their status as the only county to have played in the championship top flight since the instigation of two divisions in 2001.

The influx of Kolpak and non-England qualified players into the domestic game over the past seven years has led certain authority figures to point the finger of blame at four-day cricket coupled with the fear of relegation, leading to these latest calls for change.

Pulling no punches Key said: “I think three-day cricket is an absolute disgrace as a suggestion.

“Justin Langer says that four-day cricket is producing as good a standard of cricket as any he has seen anywhere, and that includes Australia, so I think for me four-day cricket, especially in the First Division, is what they (the authorities) should want.

“The standard in the First Division gets better and better and the intensity increases. Every game is an event, because there is so little difference between relegation and the title fight.

“So every time you’re fighting to win every match, as happened last year when it went down to the very end. There is such a premium on winning and that is what they wanted.”