Gareth Batty: English cricket has proved it can host high-quality tournaments

The ECB have decided that from 2020 there will be a new, eight-team, city-based Twenty20 competition but we must not fall into the trap of trying to copy exactly what happens in India or Australia.

Of course, we want to make cricket in this country more popular — but let’s not forget we have something that many thousands of people want to watch. Let us look at the other countries, take the best of what they do, but remember what we do well and stay true to it. At Surrey, we stage T20 brilliantly, so people come, have a good time and enjoy high-quality cricket — as I am sure they will tonight.

I believe it is very important that our supporters give Dom Sibley the reception he deserves. Dom left us for Warwickshire — who play as Birmingham in the T20 competition — earlier this month, with Rikki Clarke moving in the opposite direction.

Rikki has been one of the best all-rounders in the country for a number of years, a top-class seamer who can bat anywhere in the order and has given us the balance we have lacked since Zafar Ansari left, and might have played many more than 22 times for England.

Dom decided the best thing for his career was to move on but he is still one of ours and we should respect the move he has made. He thinks this is the way to evolve his game and get to where he wants to be and on the playing side, we understand that.

When we start the game, of course, it is a different story. I could play against a family member and I would do almost anything I had to in order to win the game, so it will be no different with Dom. But off the field, we will welcome him back as we would with any player with a Surrey history. I hope he gets no stick at all from our crowd — just as much as I hope he ends up on the losing side.