A committee is once again looking into the possibility of making changes to the format governing the 110-year-old Eastern Counties.

One key area being looked at is the 70-48 overs format which many believe is unfair to the challengers, including Wendell Smith, the coach of champions St David’s who called for a change just weeks after his team beat holders Bailey’s Bay last season.

“The committee is out and looking at it now,” Stephen Douglas, the president of the Eastern Counties Cricket Association (ECCA), said yesterday.

“We had a general meeting in October when we put together all the things we wanted to look at. The jury is still out.”

As it stands now, the team batting first in the Eastern Counties can bat for a maximum 70 overs, leaving the second team to bat 48 for a maximum of 118 for the day.

It was introduced several years ago to prevent the champions from batting the majority of the day and give the challengers less time to chase their target. Two years ago at Sea Breeze Oval, Flatts scored 294 against Bailey’s Bay who, when struggling at 81 for four at one stage, played out for the draw as they finished with 238 for six.

That, says Wendell Smith, is unfair and needs changing.

“Although we’re the champions now I would still say it gives us an unfair advantage,” Smith said after the victory over Bay.

“When we were not the cup holders I did not favour the system and now that we’re the champions I think it gives more credence to it if I speak out now because it will show that it wasn’t sour grapes.”

Smith feels that a 60 over per side match would create more excitement as it would there would be results in every game, which the majority of supporters would arguably prefer to watch.

Douglas has often defended the format, saying that the onus had to be on the challengers to have a strategy. He did say, however, that any change was up to the four clubs.

Douglas’s former Cleveland team-mate, Grant Smith, is another who has been critical of the Eastern Counties format, last year calling the qualification rules “outdated, archaic and counter-productive”.

“I know there are a couple of committees that Stephen did put in place to look into certain aspects of the Eastern Counties competition and the playing format was one of them,” Smith said.

“Quite a few players in the clubs are in favour of a change, but I don’t know what stage they are at. At this point I wouldn’t think they are going to bring about any changes [for this season].

“The format now is 118 overs in the day and the simplest way to do it would be to increase it by two overs and make it 60 overs each. As it is now it is skewed against the challengers.”

He added: “A lot of players and fans have expressed the desire for the format to change. There is support for a change out there amongst players and fans, it’s just a matter of the ECCA coming up with a change that can work, that seems fair.”

Smith would also like to see adjustments to the qualifications rules and the boundaries where, if a player was born within the Eastern Counties teams’ boundaries he could play for any one of the four teams.

Players not born or living within the boundaries have to play for a club three years before he is eligible. A player loses that eligibility if he leaves the club.

Two players now eligible to play for Cleveland through that rule are Jason Anderson and Treadwell Gibbons who play league cricket for Cleveland and are set to make their counties debut on July 19 against St David’s.

Former St George’s pair Kyle Hodsoll and Ryan Steede qualified in 2012 and 2013 respectively to play for Bailey’s Bay after joining them as league players.