SOMERSET chairman Andy Nash says the county ‘will have no truck whatsoever with franchises’ as the ECB examines all options for the future of the domestic Twenty20 competition.

Speaking at the county’s press day on Tuesday (March 17), Nash said Somerset can stand on its own two feet in Twenty20 cricket and would not be merging ‘with Gloucester or anyone else’ to take part in a potential Twenty20 English Premier League.

He said: “Somerset will have no truck whatsoever with franchises, let’s be absolutely clear - we haven’t built what we have built here in recent years, to see the game move away to ‘Vodafone Bristol’.

“If some counties decide that they can’t afford to compete in T20 and want to merge with a neighbour, then that’s up to them, but I don’t think that you will find anyone at Somerset arguing for a merger with Gloucester or anyone else to play with the white ball - it’s just not going to happen.

"We know that we can play a brand of cricket here, with the squad that we have got and the youngsters coming through, to win an EPL if that’s what is coming - so I couldn’t be clearer from the chair’s perspective that’s what we will set out to do."