Exactly. As SS so often points out, population is quite irrelevant within a country if the number of actual participants is low. Eighteen sides could only be justified if either there were three times as many cricketers in England as Australia - or if there were large geographical constraints over areas which demanded a team as to allow people living in the area to play. The latter is definitely not true and I highly doubt the former is true.
However, Australia has the luxury of having its actual states divided in a way which suits the cricketing needs of the country - and hence people can still identity with who they are playing for and supporting and foster intrinsic rivalries with other sides.. like in county cricket. The division of county borders in England means that you'll either end up with the problem of a relatively poor competition in terms of a breeding ground for the test side if you wish to keep the rivalries intrinsic to living in your county. Alternatively, England could go the other way and merge sides into each other, forming 10 franchises - but it'd be purely a competition for the test side then - support would dwindle and passion would vanish. Could you imagine Lancashrians and Yorkshiremen belonging to the same divisional team? Marketing nightmare it'd be - but it'd be better for the test side in the long run.
Lancashire and Yorkshire playing together is more than a marketing nightmare, it's purely and simply unthinkable.
Much as the Test side is the most important part of English cricket and has been for a good decade now, it's not the
only thing and maintaining county cricket, which dates back the best part of 200 years in some cases, is something that should, in my mind, be done unless completely impossible to avoid.
As for number of cricketers... I doubt there are as many as three times the number of active cricketers in England as Australia, but it's not, at all, inconceivable. Cricket's not as unpopular as it's oft made-out to be. The larger problem than overcrowding of teams, as I've said many a time, is overcrowding of
squads. How many Australian states have 24 professional cricketers on their books? The way I understand it, none. Yet several counties have this many and more, and even the poorest usually have 18 or 19.
Australian stuff seems to work the other way - with "rookie" contracts IIRR.
