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London West Indies will play some One-day Internationals outside of the traditional arenas when they tour England next year.

At a meeting at Lord's yesterday, The First Class Forum (FCF) which comprises the 18 first-class counties and MCC agreed that Bristol, Canterbury and Chester-le-Street would be among the venues for the 10-match triangular limited overs series between England, West Indies and Zimbabwe next season.

The tournament is part of an expanded home international programme for England, who are also playing two Tests against Zimbabwe and five Tests against West Indies.

The FCF also agreed to central contracts for the leading England players from the start of next season.

The move came 24 hours after England completed their worst home season in recent cricket history, losing 2-1 to New Zealand and failing to get beyond the first round of the World Cup.

An additional one million pounds (US$1.61 million) is to be included in the budget for the year 2000 to cover the cost of contracts for the players and compensation to the counties for the loss of their services.

There are unlikely to be more than 16 players receiving contracts and the first batch, to be announced after the tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe ends next February, will run from next March to September.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Tim Lamb said: ``We believe the introduction of central contracts is essential if England are to develop a settled squad of players capable of performing consistently well.''