Warwickshire have become the first county to publicly support plans to introduce a city based Twenty20 tournament alongside the current county competition from 2018.

Telegraph Sport revealed earlier this week the England & Wales Cricket Board is proposing a new Twenty20 tournament styled on the Big Bash from 2018 featuring new teams but with all 18 counties shareholders in the competition.

The clubs not involved in the tournament will be allowed to retain their existing competition played primarily on Friday nights as a compromise solution as the ECB battles to win the support of the counties for its ambitious plans.

Warwickshire have already embraced the city concept playing as the Birmingham Bears in the Natwest Blast since 2014.