England cricket chiefs are set to revisit proposals for city-based Twenty20 franchises as part of wider efforts to transform of the domestic structure.

According to the Telegraph, a new working party comprising the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and county sides who currently own Test-standard venues has already convened for the first time. The newspaper reports that the group has commissioned Deloitte to draw up a paper that will be submitted to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) over the next six weeks.

Proposals being mooted include the creation of a franchise league incorporating nine teams based at each of the Test venues; similar to the format of the Indian Premier League (IPL). A source told the newspaper: "The group is looking at the whole domestic structure and part of that will be Twenty20 cricket. We will also look at the bidding system in terms of how that operates and whether the model we have at the moment is the best model or not."

It is believed the franchise format would encourage new investment to help larger grounds to sustain development plans, and follow on from proposals drawn up by the MCC's Keith Bradshaw and Surrey County Cricket chair David Stewart two years ago.