Sport England, who distribute Lottery money to sport, have sent auditors to Lord's to examine the structure of English county cricket, The Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday.

The changes that the auditors recommend will be accepted, even if it means slimming down the first-class county structure, Sport England chief executive Roger Draper told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.

Currently a debate is on about the structure of county cricket.

According to former England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Lord MacLaurin, who initiated the debate, unless English cricket reforms and, perhaps, the number of counties are reduced from 18 to 12, it will go the way of croquet.

The Cricket Reform Group, which includes Michael Parkinson and former England captains Bob Willis and Michael Atherton, supports this view.

Draper told the paper: "The Cricket Reform Group have written to us and the auditors are at this moment at Lord's…

"I don't want to be sitting here in 10 years' time and saying participation has increased by 0.03 per cent in the last decade and we're still losing to Australia."

Cricket receives £6 million a year from Sport England and cannot easily dismiss their proposals. Cricket is not the only game under Sport England scanner; similar audits are being carried out in many other sports.