David White.

First-class cricket is set for a trim this season with the tournament expected to be pruned from 10 to eight rounds.

The move was more or less signalled by New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White last year.

White suggested the time was right to review the domestic competitions. With so much limited-overs cricket ahead of the Black Caps, the Plunket Shield always shaped as the mostly likely tournament to take a hit. It costs New Zealand Cricket up to $5 million a season and offers no financial return.

However, it is also the traditional form of the game and is still considered the best format to develop quality players. Perhaps for that reason it has survived a more dramatic cut.

The players will still be busy. A source told the Otago Daily Times the one-day tournament is expanding to include two extra rounds and it is understood the playoff format will change to bring it into line with the twenty20 competition.

The New Zealand A programme is set to expand as well and it is hoped the extended schedule will help bridge the gap to international cricket.

It is believed a more substantial New Zealand A programme was critical in convincing the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association to accept changes to the first-class competition.

NZCPA chief executive Heath Mills said he was not in a position to comment but the structure of the first-class competition has tended to fluctuate between five and 10 round-robin games.

It is also not an indication the tournament's longevity is at risk. However, there has been a seismic shift in sport during the past 30 years.

Cricket is a time-consuming and difficult game which does not always easily fit with modern lifestyles.

Former New Zealand Cricket director Martin Snedden was in Dunedin last month to discuss the future of the sport in the region and said cricket needed to adapt to remain relevant for future generations.

The game is losing secondary school players faster than any other sport and he believed the solution was ''short-form stuff''.

Former New Zealand and Otago all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, who made the decision to transfer north to Wellington next season, felt first-class cricket was where you ''earned your stripes and where you get the most value out of your game''.

He felt cutting the Plunket Shield would be fine ''as long as those games are replaced with other meaningful first-class fixtures or New Zealand A tours''.

''I think the main thing is just getting a high volume of cricket into guys so they can actually learn what works and what doesn't before they get to the international level and have to find out in the cauldron.''