Former England captain Michael Vaughan has questioned the decision to start the domestic Twenty20 season two weeks before the Ashes series gets underway.

Vaughan said that the players would have been better off playing in the County Championship in the week leading up to the start of The Ashes, not the shortest form of the game.

"I get sick and tired of talking about scheduling but the Ashes series is the biggest thing that happens in this country," Sky Sports News quotes him as saying.

"How our schedulers have not been able to produce a round of four-day championship matches leading into an Ashes series is beyond me.

"If I could get any answer from an administrator telling me it's worthwhile us playing Twenty20 now, I'd punch them in the face, because they are wrong. Every single county should be playing four-day cricket this week."

The first Test gets underway on Wednesday at Trent Bridge.