Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell will keep a close eye on the new two-phase innings format that the second eleven will compete in this season.

The knock-out cup will feature white clothing and pink cricket balls with forty-over innings split into two twenty-over phases.

The ECB are keen to experiment with pink cricket balls following suggestion that they could pave the way for floodlit Test cricket.

“The format of this competition is experimental but it’s right that it should be trialled with second elevens before any of these elements are considered for introduction in first class cricket,” said Newell.

“Anything that reinforces the primacy of Test and four-day cricket is a good thing in my eyes and we have to find ways to maintain the status of longer formats of the game.”

Nottinghamshire have been given a bye for the first round of the competition and will face Derbyshire in round two.

Second Eleven Knock-Out Cup Draw:
Round 1
Yorkshire v Durham
Somerset v Gloucester
Round 2
Lancashire v Yorkshire or Durham
Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire
Glamorgan v Somerset or Gloucestershire
Northamptonshire v Leicestershire
Surrey v Middlesex
Essex v Kent
Sussex v Hampshire