I travelled up to watch Donemana take on North County in Strabane for the Irish Senior Cup last Friday and thoroughly enjoyed the day even if it was cut short. I saw enough to be pretty sure of what the result would be the following day and left certain of who was really the bigger club.

I noted that there were a number of exceptional cricketers watching Donemana who left them for financial gain and a number of exceptional cricketers playing for North County who joined them for the same reason. There is little doubt that County are the best club team in Ireland and they need to be to stay ahead of the pack in the competitive Leinster league. I totally agree with Stu Daultrey that the onus is on the others to catch up. On pure ability alone there was little between the teams. North County just looked that wee bit sharper in every aspect of the game. Bowling, batting, fielding and the reading of the game they just simply had that extra yard. That is a gap that can only be breached by playing top teams each week and adding that extra sharpness when it matters.

The difficulty for Donemana is that the gap is hard to breach when they aren't pushed every week. Donemana take on Brigade this weekend and victory will be enough to lift the Senior League in the North West for 2008. Apart from the matches against each other it will mean that only Eglinton who caught Limavady cold on the opening match of the season will be able to claim a victory over the North West's best two teams. Limavady managed a cup win over Donemana to edge their mini series 2-1 and added the ClubTurf Ulster Cup to the trophy cabinet but otherwise they were untroubled as well. Again it was only lack of sharpness that probably let them down in the ISC rather than lack of talent.

In the last 30 years of North West cricket it means that only St. Johnston in 1984 will have broken the stranglehold of the big three of Brigade, Donemana and Limavady. Those sides also have proud Irish Cup traditions but they need exposure to a better standard of cricket week in and week out if they are to be a serious threat to the top Leinster sides.

Everything I have just said about Limavady and Donemana, you can repeat for North Down and Waringstown. These two sides have dominated NCU cricket for the last decade yet when the ISC comes around they have been consistently inconsistent. When pushed they have failed to come up to the required standard because there is a soft underbelly to their domestic leagues. Last week, North Down took just 4.2 overs to chase down Derriaghy's total. That would hardly be the ideal preparation required to take on Railway Union, The Hills or North County in an ISC semi-final for example.

This week the NCU have proposed that the top leagues in the NCU are organised in 2 leagues of 8 from 2010. Broadly speaking I would welcome these changes. With 5 major competitions open to the top teams cutting the league programme by 4 games gives a little more time for rearrangements. However these changes aren't radical enough to transform cricket in Ulster. The Ulster Cup should be scrapped completely and we should keep the 10 team league structure but do it on an ‘All Ulster' basis. There is no appetite for a return of the Inter-Provincial series so it would be much better to strengthen club cricket. There are a few issues that need to be resolved such as overseas professionals, eligibility, Duckworth/Lewis and rearrangements but they can be quite easily resolved with some dialogue.

To be honest, having spent this year travelling up and down at the weekends there isn't really too much difficulty with the distances. Besides you would only be travelling outside your own Union for 5 of the 18 league games so it isn't that big a deal. The truth of the matter is that the top sides in the NCU and the NWCU need each other.

When a cricket mad country the size of India can throw away its traditions to create an 8 team competition that has sparked a revolution in the sport then surely Northern Ireland can do the same even on a more modest basis of a 10 team top league. It isn't going to be a franchise but a meritocracy. You would have 2 top leagues of 10 comprised of the top 5 in each Union. The remaining leagues would be organised as usual on a local basis. The winning teams therefore in the NCU and in the North West would have a play off to decide who would qualify for entry into the new Ulster leagues. This would mean a fair entry system on a fifty/fifty basis. Other than that within the Ulster Premier Leagues (UPL) it is totally open. Nothing else would need to change. The Challenge Cup and the North West Senior Cup would be contested by the same teams that contest it now.

Much of the written media is Belfast based and the coverage the North West gets in comparison to the NCU makes it the poor relation. That would change dramatically in an Ulster League. The NCU clubs would benefit from the competitiveness of the North West teams and the atmosphere in the grounds would be transformed with the passion of the supporters. Big games would be coming thick and fast every week and nothing would be predictable. The coverage of Cricket Europe has been superb this year and I believe their efforts have proved there is enough interest in cricket locally to take the sport to the next level. Cricket itself is not the problem as it is a fantastic sport. But the local game needs a dramatic transformation not tinkering at the edges.

There is a long way to go before this gets up and running but it is a necessary step to improve standards. This idea has been mooted for years now and would be a reality but for the parochial nature of the two unions. 2009 will be a year that clubs like Strabane, Brigade, Woodvale, Ballymena, and Instonians will want to be at the top table. Ambitious clubs like Carrickfergus, CIYMS and Glendermott have the infrastructure to be at the very top and proud clubs like Lurgan, Downpatrick, St. Johnston and Sion Mills need that goal to aim at, to usher back in the glory days.

I can guarantee you that the teams that would be against the UPL are those that have't made it to where they want to be. Were they in the frame for the top league they would change their tune. Time to lift your heads and see the potential and the positives for your club; more exposure, bigger profile, greater revenues and better cricket.

Based on the likely finishing positions for 2008 the 2009 Ulster Premier Leagues would be:

Ulster Premier League 1: North Down, Donemana, CSNI, Limavady, Waringstown, Bready, Lisburn, Fox Lodge, Bangor and Eglinton.

Ulster Premier League 2: Glendermott, Instonians, Strabane, Brigade, Carrickfergus Killymallaght, CIYMS, Woodvale, Ballymena and Sion Mills or Coleraine.

North West Senior 1:Ardmore, Coleraine or Sion Mills, St. Johnston, Creevedonnell, North Fermanagh, The Nedd, Killyclooney, Drummond, Bonds Glen and Burndennett.

NCU Senior 1: Cliftonville, Derriaghy, Lurgan, Muckamore, Laurelvale, Saintfield, Downpatrick, Dunmurry, Holywood or Dundrum, Academy or Cooke Collegians.