ECB boost domestic prize money by 150 percent

As England's one-day team began preparations for a match which could net players one million dollars each, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced a 150 percent increase in domestic prize money.

The board is keen to safeguard the primacy of Test cricket and the first-class game that prepares players for what most English fans still regard as the pinnacle of the sport.

To that end the total sum on offer to the winners of the four-day first-class County Championship will rise from 100,000 pounds to 500,000 pounds.

Players in the winning county will receive 350,000 pounds in prize money and the county itself collecting 150,000 pounds as a reward payment.

The total prize money and reward payment for the Championship will rise to 1.06 million pounds. The runners up will receive 225,000 pounds of which 175,000 pounds will go to the players and 50,000 to the county. In 2008 the runners-up received 40,000.

There were also what the ECB said were "significant rises" in the prize money and reward payments for the winners of the final NatWest Pro40 competition and for the county which lifts the Friends Provident Trophy at the Lord's final in late July.

The ECB decision comes as England's one-day team prepare for their winner-takes-all, million dollars (570,000 pounds) Twenty20 clash against Allen Stanford's Super Stars in Antigua.

ECB chief executive David Collier said: "The ECB board strongly believe that it was important to increase the prize fund available to all competitions on the back of the rise of the opportunities provided by Twenty20 cricket and we were particularly anxious to increase the money that was available for the winners of the LV County Championship to 500,000 pounds.

"This reflects the ECB's commitment to the LV County Championship and the npower Test Matches as the pinnacle of the game."

Collier added: "These increases reward both players and counties and in a difficult economic climate demonstrate the strength of cricket and our confidence in the domestic game."

England players have been barred from appearing in the lucrative Indian Premier League because the dates have clashed with international commitments.

The ECB's moves in negotiating with Texan billionaire Stanford, whose own ground in Antigua will stage the multi-million dollar clash on November 1, and in bolstering prize money will be seen as attempts to ensure current and potential international players do not succumb to the IPL at England's expense.