England stars agree 10% county cut

	Andrew Flintoff has cut a deal with his county, Lancashire © Getty Images

Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have agreed to pay their counties 10% of their potential earnings from the Indian Premier League, after England's cricketers were cleared to take part in the competition for a three-week window that will rule them out of the start of the English season.

The settlement was agreed after negotiations between the Professional Cricketers' Association and the ECB, with Hampshire's chairman, Rod Bransgrove, and Lancashire's Michael Cairns representing the counties of England's two most marketable players.

"It's something the players are supportive of," Sean Morris, the chief executive of the PCA, told the Guardian. "One game's absence could net a county a fair bit of money, so commercially it makes sense. The counties would probably prefer it that way round than having a player for one game that he might not have played in anyway."

Bransgrove, who has already had dealings with the IPL after agreeing to the release of Dimitri Mascarenhas for last year's competition, described the arrangement as "sensible and adult." If Pietersen was bought at the auction for his projected value of US$1.5 million, his three weeks' work could net his county a sum in the region of £50,000 on a pro-rata basis.

That figure could rise for the 2010 season. Lalit Modi told Cricinfo on Friday that he would be expecting a two-year commitment from any player signed by the IPL, and there's still a chance that England may rearrange their summer fixtures to accommodate longer stints in next year's competition. "Broadcasting contracts could make that tricky at the moment, but it's a question of how flexible people can be," said Morris.

"It doesn't make sense to have conflicting games between international cricket and the IPL," he added, "so we could reach the stage where England players are available for the whole tournament. Who knows, if that happens, Flintoff could probably part-fund some of the ground redevelopment at Old Trafford by himself."