One or two of the teams at the bottom of the second division should follow Somerset's lead and prepare turning wickets.
Gloucestershire, Derbyshire and Glamorgan have only spent two years in division one since two divisions came in, the least of any counties.
Derbyshire haven't won a major trophy since 1993. In the time since every other county has won at least two trophies. Warwickshire are the most successful with 13 trophies.
Gloucestershire's recent finishes in division 2 are 5th(2018), 6th(2017), 6th(2016), 6th(2015), 7th(2014), 6th(2013), 9th Last (2012).
Glamorgan's recent finishes in division 2 are 10th last (2018), 7th(2017), 8th(2016), 4th(2015), 8th(2013), 6th(2012), 6th(2011)
Derbyshire's recent finishes in division 2 are 4th(2014), 8th(2015), 9th -Last(2016), 8th(2017) and 7th(2018)
You have to go back to Jack Russell, Dominic Cork and Robert Croft for the last time these counties produced an even semi regular England player.
The point I'm making is these counties really aren't going anywhere. They aren’t producing players, they aren’t attractive to prospective players and they don’t have the financial power to compete with many of the bigger counties. Any kind of decent player coming through leaves after a little while because they are stuck in div 2. Two of Gloucestershire best young bowlers, Craig Miles and Liam Norwell, left this winter for Warwickshire. Ben Slater left Derbyshire for Notts.
Even a side like Worcestershire, who have done an amazing job bringing through a quality group of local players (with still more coming through) can't keep hold of their best players (Joe Clarke, Kohler-Cadmore) and can't manage to stay in division 1 for more than a season. The best they can seemingly hope for is to yoyo between the two divisions, and win the odd white ball trophy.
There's an actual opportunity next year for division 2 clubs with 3 teams getting promoted. Unfortunately though for the likes of Glos, Glam, and Derb there are four counties that are much stronger than they are. ie. Lancashire, Middlesex, Sussex and Worcestershire.
Under normal circumstances they aren't getting promoted. So why not do something different. The schedule is quite accommodating in 2019 to those wanting to prepare turning wickets with more cricket been played in the middle of summer than in recent times.
In the short term the counties aren't competing anyway so even if the worst happens and they get thrashed most weeks it's no different from normal. At least there is some different cricket being played. Over recent years a lot of the most interesting cricket has been played at Taunton because of the alien conditions and the difference from the rest of the grounds. It makes interesting cricket.
In the medium to long term these counties would hopefully become an attraction proposition for spin bowlers, and maybe even batsman. Like Somerset, providing spinning wickets might actually make decent spin bowlers - who might go onto play for England. Having England players galvanises the local community. You only have to look at the local support Leach and Bess have had in Somerset and Devon to see the benefits of local international cricketers. It also benefits the home team to have alien conditions to the rest of the division. Somerset were unbeaten at home in 2018 - it's tough for visiting sides.
The tactical advantages are obvious. If you play on turning wickets every other week, whilst every other team plays once a year on a turning deck then you have a pretty significant home advantage. You might have a worse squad than a Sussex or Middlesex but the gap will narrow due to your heightened home advantage.
A lot of these counties at the bottom of division 2 also have threadbare budgets and squads. Spinners generally get injured less than fast bowlers so it allows counties to maintain small budgets with small squads.
Derbsyhire and Glamorgan are in a reasonable position in that they already have some promising spin bowlers, some of which have allround skills which makes it easier to balance their sides. Matt Critchley at Derbyshire is a Batting allrounder who bowls some reasonable leg spin, plus they have Hamidullah Qadri who is a promising offie. Glamorgan have had lots of spin bowlers come through their academy in recent years, and haven't quite cracked the county game - which isn't surprising given the conditions. Salter, Morgan, Bull, Sisodiya etc. Both these teams also have fast bowlers - Vijoen, Van der Gugten, De Lange , whose skills are lessened by playing on green seamers, but whose value (in relation to other teams medium pacers) will go up on flat wickets (that turn for the spinners).
There are also a number of spinners who have been released by their counties who are presumably looking for opportunities and will be fairly cheap to secure. Kerrigan, Azeem Rafiq and Ravi Patel were the most well known of those.
Proposed Derbyshire side - Godleman, Reece, Lace, Madsen, A Hughes, Smit, Critchley, Van Beek, Vijoen, Qadri, R Patel
Proposed Glamorgan side - Selman, Murphy, Marsh,Carlson, LLoyd, Cooke, Salter, Morgan, Van der Gugten, De Lange, Hogan
The main problem with all of this is in the longer term it'll be harder to produce spinning wickets because less cricket is been played in the middle of the season. In 2020 they go back to four day cricket at the start and end of the summer which obviously isn't ideal. However Somerset had no problem artificially making their wickets spin friendly in September in recent years so it can't be that hard to produce these wickets.