Lord MacLaurin, the outgoing chairman of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), has signed off with a stark warning to English cricket: Get in shape or face catastrophic consequences. Speaking to London's Daily Telegraph, MacLaurin said that if the problems of recent months continue then the amount the sport will receive from television companies when contracts are renegotiated in 2005 will be substantially reduced. The effect of poor results in Australia and controversy over players' fitness has left English cricket with a poor public image.

"Given the way football television deals have gone, cricket needs to prove it has the right product otherwise it will not get the right price. David Morgan [MacLaurin's successor] has two years to get it right before the next broadcasting contract. That is the business view and cricket is a business."

MacLaurin also made it clear that he would have liked to have remained as chairman and finished the job he begun in 1997. "It is my biggest regret. I would have liked to stay on, modernise the game and create an all-powerful management abroad so cricket can be run like a proper company and we can be fit and ready for whatever the future holds." But the rejection of his proposals by the first-class counties led to him deciding to stand down.

"We have to work with the Professional Cricketers Association on this. You cannot throw people out of work. But we have to reform the system where cricketers play for their benefit. They stay on and stay on for the benefit but will never play for England."

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