Gloucestershire's County Board are proposing major changes to the junior cricket set-up in the region.

The Board's development manager Steve Silk believes youngsters need to play longer matches, and has also been in consultation with Gloucestershire supremo John Bracewell.

Silk said: "This has been a successful year. We've worked a lot on policy and structures.

"We have moved to the County Ground and we are now working closely with Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. We are now ready to make changes.

"We are looking to change the format of youth club cricket. At the moment there are a lot of good youngsters, but they are playing 20-over cricket.

"In some parts of the county, the youngsters play even fewer overs. We are looking to set up a new league across the whole of the county and Under-11s will play 30-overs, Under-13s will play 40-overs and Under-15s 50-overs.

"We have found that when people come from local club cricket to play county age-group cricket they are not performing as well as we had hoped.

"For example, we need to give bowlers the chance to have two or three spells with the ball and, at the moment, they are not used to that."

Silk has also revealed there will be changes to the selection process for the youngsters set for elite coaching during the winter.

"We want to get the right people into the age group squads," he added.

"There will be four trials at Under-13 level. We will then select a final 24 who will come forward for the last trial.

"At the top end, there will be 12 youngsters working with three coaches but we will have 60 kids improving as cricketers."

Silk, who plays club cricket as a batsman for Chippenham in Premier Two, is in his first year as the development manager.

He has also been helping several local clubs work on their facilities and relevant paperwork that will allow them to claim funding from the England & Wales Cricket Board.

"For a number of years our clubs have not been supported as well as they should have been in terms of raising funds and getting aid from ECB grants," he added.

"We help produce facilities and clubhouses that are capable of holding county cricket and age-group representative cricket.

"I have been impressed with Thornbury structurally and behind the scenes.

"Bristol YMCA do a lot of good work and they have three or four guys who are putting in a lot of effort to raise the standards.

"Bristol West Indians are talking to the ECB and are trying to get an accredited club mark."