ECB boost domestic prize money

As England's one-day team began preparations for a match which could net players $US1 million ($A1.49 million) 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 STG100,000 ($A242,000) to STG500,000 ($A1.21 million).

Players in the winning county will receive STG350,000 ($A848,000) in prize money and the county itself collecting STG150,000 ($A363,500) as a reward payment.

The total prize money and reward payment for the Championship will rise to STG1.06 million ($A2.57 million). The runners up will receive STG225,000 ($A545,000) 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.

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