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The prospect of English cricket launching an Indian Premier League-style city franchise Twenty20 tournament is reportedly back on the table.

The Daily Telegraph reports that a working party has been set up by the counties that own Test venues and the MCC, which owns Lord's, with the aim of examining the entire structure of county cricket in England.

The paper claims that the group, which met for the first time at Lord's last week, comprises Colin Povey, chief executive of Warwickshire; Jim Cumbes of Lancashire; Yorkshire's Stewart Regan; Durham's David Harker and Keith Bradshaw, secretary and chief executive of the MCC.

They are understood to have commissioned Deloitte to compile a report, which will be submitted to the England and Wales Cricket Board over the next six weeks. The counties involved are Lancashire, Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Durham, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, Surrey and Glamorgan.

The move follows a proposal two years ago to set up an English Premier League involving nine teams based at the Test venues.

That plan was devised by Bradshaw and David Stewart, the chairman of Surrey. But it was scrapped after opposition from the smaller counties, who feared being sidelined, and their support will be crucial if the working party again proposes a franchise system.

"The group is looking at the whole domestic structure and part of that will be Twenty20 cricket," a senior source told the Telegraph.

"We will also look at the bidding system in terms of how that operates and whether the model we have at the moment is the best model or not. A few of the guys have been out to India and we are convinced there are enough investors in India alone who would be willing to buy into a franchise."

It is believed that a new Twenty20 competition would run alongside the existing Friends Provident Twenty20, a tournament that includes all 18 counties.

However, it seems the smaller counties could once again stall the city franchise plans.

Neil Davison, the chairman of Leicestershire, said: "To me this is a situation where there are too many Test match grounds who have invested in facilities but there are not enough Test matches to go around.

"They see the IPL city franchise idea as the answer to their maiden's prayer. It is right that the finances of the game are reaching a critical point, and there is going to have to be a meeting of minds over what is best for the game, but going off on tangents about city franchises is not the solution.

"The answer is people sitting around and being open about their finances and then 18 counties making a decision about what is the best way forward. If groups keep going around with their own agendas then the game is in dire straits."