Domestic cricket in England and Wales has provided a number of ideas that initially seemed radical - but which have gone on to be accepted in the game worldwide.
Most obviously, there was the Twenty20 Cup of 2003 - blazing the trail that has led to the development of the Indian Premier League, Australia's Big Bash, the ICC World T20 (the latter two competitions for men and women) and of course the growing strength of the NatWest T20 Blast.
But did you know that our domestic game also pioneered the following?
- 1963: Gillette Cup - the first one-day tournament (initially 65 overs per side), and the first to carry a sponsor's name
- 1997: The Duckworth Lewis Method, implemented to adjust targets in rain-affected matches
- 2001: Six-run penalties were introduced for teams with an unacceptably slow over rate in one-day cricket
- 2001: Lancashire took to the field for their first County Championship match of the season wearing squad numbers on fleece-style jumpers
- 2002: Batsmen were given a free hit to punish bowlers who bowled a no-ball in domestic one-day competitions
- 2003: ECB launches first domestic T20 competition
Now the 2016 trial of allowing the visiting team the option of choosing to bowl first, and forsaking the toss, will join that list of innovations. The fixtures for the 2016 season will be published next week.
Differences for 2016
There will be a small but significant difference on the first morning of all fixtures in both divisions of next season's County Championship. Before the toss, the visiting captain will be offered the opportunity of bowling first.
If he declines, the toss will take place as normal. But if he accepts, there will be no toss
I guess what they're trying to do is produce pitches that are capable of developing all round skills in the game, said Glamorgan's Robert Croft.
This is borne out of pitches in recent times being far too bowler friendly and games being over very quickly indeed, added Croft, who took more than 1,000 wickets during his playing career with Glamorgan.
They want pitches that are not just seam bowler friendly but batsman friendly and spin friendly, so I guess it's trying to even the balance of pitches throughout the game in this country to hopefully benefit all the skills which will hopefully benefit the national team.
It's a move we have to be open minded about - the toss has been there pretty much since the game started so it's very easy to get closed minded about it and say we can't mess with tradition.
But the development of the game is bigger than the toss.
And also we have to think of the supporters. They expect to see a good game of cricket that finishes about tea time on the last day ideally, but a lot of the games now are over in two days or just barely into the third day.