Sir Ian Botham feels counties should receive compensation when players move

Durham chairman and Sky Sports Cricket commentator Sir Ian Botham has reiterated his call for compensation to be offered to counties who lose a player.

Botham’s comments come after Durham confirmed on Tuesday their T20 captain Paul Coughlin will join Nottinghamshire on a three-year deal after he rejected the offer a new contract at Emirates Riverside.

Despite Coughlin coming through the county’s academy, Durham will not receive any money for him in the form of a transfer fee or compensation, a situation Botham insists must change.

"We’ve produced a lot of very good players for England over the years, players that have done exceptionally well," he told Sky Sports News.

"Keaton Jennings, Paul Collingwood, Steve Harmison. All these guys have come through the academy.

"We are about to lose another player – Paul Coughlin – who has come through our system. We took over the club and understood the relegation because of the financial situation the club was left in.

"We accepted that and then, without any prior knowledge, we were suddenly deducted 48 points, which I think was really out of order.

"Consequently you become an unfashionable club. I have no problem with Paul wanting to further his career, I think that’s the way it should be.

"It’s no different than a football team producing someone from the Championship or League One that goes to a Premiership side.

"But he doesn’t go and that’s the end of the deal, you get some compensation and that’s how you keep producing players.

"The problem we’ve got at Durham is we have invested a lot of time and a lot of money in Paul. He is a fantastic, promising cricketer, one of the best in the country and I can understand sides wanting him.

"We are not going to stand in his way. We are in the Second Division [of the Specsavers County Championship] and we will build a side to get out of that division.

"But we get absolutely no compensation for all the work that we have done, the time and the investment that has been put into Paul.

"I think that’s wrong. How are we meant to replace players when we are not getting anything for the player that has left us?"

A transfer system in domestic cricket could see agents exert greater control over the game but Botham does not have a problem with them, as long as they are regulated by cricket’s authorities.

"They’re here. There are not many players that haven’t got an agent," added Botham. "What I want to do is control that situation, or at least get the ECB to put in some controls.

"Clubs have got to reinvest, they have to bring in players to replace the player they have lost.

"We get nothing and are back out of pocket. How does that work?"

(c) Sky News 2017: Sir Ian Botham feels counties should receive compensation when players move