Lancashire’s chief executive has said agents are the main threat to the future of the County Championship. Daniel Gidney, one of county cricket’s longest-serving chief executives, criticised agents for not caring about the championship and instead turning players’ heads to the ever-burgeoning number of franchise tournaments.

“We need to have more of an open conversation,” Gidney said as he watched Lancashire turn the tables on Somerset at Old Trafford to improve their survival chances and give Surrey the title. “Coaches get blamed, administrators get blamed, but if you want to blame anybody, blame agents … I think the game as a whole needs to come together to find a way to support the championship.

“England players don’t have to play in the championship, agents don’t care about the championship. More prize money would help and I think we need to find a way of paying four or five players a lot more money. Instead of £80,000-90,000 being the top domestic salary, we need to find a way of paying £200k … and saying part of that deal is that you don’t play franchise cricket.”

Lancashire go into Thursday’s final round of the championship with the threat of relegation hanging heavy. They are 15 points behind third-bottom Nottinghamshire and favourites to join already relegated Kent in Division Two next year. They have been hampered, Gidney hinted, by some players making themselves unavailable. Liam Livingstone, for example, has not played championship cricket for Lancashire since 2021, while Luke Wood is with the Bangla Tigers in the Zim Afro T10.

Lancashire have fielded, on average, six players under the age of 22 in the championship this year: not ideal in Gidney’s eyes. “I think at least four or five players [at Lancashire] won’t play championship cricket. There are some whose bodies genuinely can’t handle it and there are others who are making a choice.”

He was critical of non-objection certificates, which he said have been “diluted” over the past five years and have tied his hands as a chief executive to refuse players permission to travel for franchise tournaments. He also praised the recent decision by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to tell players to play in the Ranji Trophy or jeopardise their international and Indian Premier League contracts.

“Imagine a governing body actually saying that out loud … That was fantastic prioritising.” Indian cricketers, it should be pointed out, don’t have a union.

He has some sympathy for players. “They have a career – I’m not begrudging their ability to earn money – but the balance has tipped … When the bottom rung of the Hundred is what a rookie would earn in the championship – who among us would turn down earning more money for less work?”

It’s a question that the game needs to grapple with, quickly.