THE INTRODUCTION OF squad numbers for the championship and another revamp to boost the Christy Ring Cup are among the changes proposed by the Hurling 2020 Review Committee.

The report delivered in Croke Park today outlines 15 proposals to improve the game across a broad range of areas.

Among them is a move to introduce squad numbers for inter-county panels ahead of the first game of the championship, which would eliminate the confusion caused by late changes to teams named in the match programme.

The 10-man committee, chaired by Tipperary’s former All-Ireland winning manager Liam Sheedy, has also proposed changes to revitalise the second-tier Christy Ring Cup including automatic promotion to the Leinster senior hurling championship round-robin for the winners.

The report calls for the creation of a full-time director of hurling “charged with the overall strategic development of hurling.”

Selected proposals from the Hurling 2020 report

Proposal 2: Establish a full-time Director of Hurling role

Proposal 6: To ensure fairness and consistency, we propose the standardisation of the ball in hurling at all levels

Proposal 9: Remove all Promotion/Relegation playoffs involving teams in different divisions in the Allianz Hurling Leagues

Proposal 10: Remove the Promotion/Relegation playoff involving the bottom team in the Leinster Round-Robin competition and the Christy Ring Cup champion. Instead the bottom Leinster Round-Robin team would be relegated to the Christy Ring Cup while the Christy Ring Cup champion would be automatically promoted as a reward for winning the competition.

Proposal 12: Play the Christy Ring Cup Final as a curtain raiser to a high profile Liam MacCarthy Cup All-Ireland Senior Hurling Qualifier.

Proposal 15: Allocate squad numbers to each team in the Liam MacCarthy cup prior to their team’s first game.

You can read the report in full here >

Teams who lose a man to two yellow cards could soon be allowed bring on a replacement