England to embrace football-style transfers

Transfer speculation has kept many football journalists in gainful employment during quiet times, and now it seems that English cricket writers will be granted the same relief. Next summer transfers between counties will become an official part of the game, ending the confusing system of listed players and contested moves.

The change has come about partly because of European employment laws and partly because of lobbying by the Professional Cricketers Association. But progress, if that's what it is, only goes so far, and the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is determined that the system will not become as messy as is the case in football.

At the moment it is not always simple for players to change counties. The new rules are aimed to make that more straightforward, while underlining the need for individuals to honour their contracts. Moves during the season will be the exception, and will have to be ratified by the ECB, and players switching will also be cup-tied for C&G and Twenty20 games.

There will also be transfer fees between counties, but the ECB guidelines for these will be strict, and all approaches must be formal and made through the proper channels. Informal discussions, whether directly with the players or via third parties, will not be permitted and any county found to be breaching the rules will be subject to fines of between £20,000 and £50,000.

The ECB will also be establishing an arbitration procedure when discussions between a county and a player have broken down.

Steve Coverdale, the Northamptonshire chief executive, told the Sunday Telegraph that the new regulations could further highlight the growing disparity between the rich counties and the rest. "You could easily imagine a situation where, with freedom of movement, all the best players congregate to a few rich counties and the poorer clubs just operate as feeders."

While the news might sound as if it will seriously affect the way the domestic game operates, in reality all it does it make more official a system which has been operating informally for quite some time. The player merry-go-round has sped up in recent seasons, and when individuals are unhappy they tend to get their wishes anyway, as was the case with John Crawley last winter.