Somerset Chief Executive Peter Anderson returned to the issue of centrally contracted England players when I spoke to him at the County Ground on Thursday morning.

He told me," We are watching very carefully the proposal to increase the number of centrally contracted England players, which is inevitably linked to the numbers of overseas players who can be registered with each county."

The Chief Executive continued," Somerset County Cricket Club assume that there will be an increase in the number of England contracts. With that in mind we have put on the table for the next meeting of the First Class Forum meeting a proposal, seconded by Lancashire, that each county should be able to employ up to three overseas players for 2003, 2004 and 2005."

He continued, "Somerset will back a proposal to increase the number of centrally contracted players, provided that we are happy with the management of the players who are not playing for England at the time."

He added," For example it would be totally nonsensical if Steffan Jones instead of playing for Somerset was used as a net bowler in a Test Match."

© SOMERSET