Prize-money for the winners of the LV County Championship will be increased fivefold to £500,000 next season in an attempt by the ECB to sustain the primacy of first-class cricket ahead of Twenty20. The injection can only add to the intensity of a competition that is the breeding ground for England Test players.

Three months ago, the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) called for the first division winners to receive £1million, but details of the hike were described as “excellent news” yesterday by Sean Morris, the PCA chief executive, who is discussing with counties how the money may be split.

“Normally the model has been that prize-money goes to players rather than the counties,” he said. “But as the figure goes up, then the eyes light up and people start to think about the share. Our view is that most of the prize-money going to players is best because they are the guys doing it day-in, day-out for six months.”

Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, is among those concerned at the disparity between rewards on offer in the longer and shorter games. The worry is that young players will gravitate towards 20-over cricket as the source of the new money coming into the sport via the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Stanford events.

Justin Langer, whose Somerset team will sit on top of the table tonight barring defeat by Durham, welcomed the initiative. “The standard in the championship is outstanding at the moment so that may not change, but we cannot afford to lose sight of the importance of Test cricket,” he said. “This sounds like a great idea.”

Policy on distributing prize-money to players varies from county to county. Some of them pay bonuses on top of the winnings and there have been cases where success has been a factor in recording an overall loss. It is not unusual for counties to insure against having to pay out in the event of success.

The way that Twenty20 has barged on to the scene was underlined yesterday as the ICC Champions League, due to take place for the first time from December 3-10, became the most expensive tournament on a per-game basis. ESPN Star Sports (ESS) bid $900million (about £515million) for commercial rights over ten years and another $75million for marketing purposes. ESS tendered aggressively having lost to a consortium including Sony and the World Sports Group for the IPL earlier in the year. It can sell on the event to overseas broadcasters in the way that Sony sold the English rights for the IPL to Setanta Sports.

Organisers have already stated that a bigger Champions League, expanded from eight to 12 teams, will take place in September and October 2009. Senior ECB figures in Dubai on ICC business this week have been trying, on the fringes of the main meetings, to ensure that England will field two teams in future.

Kent were denied entry alongside Middlesex this year because of player involvement with the rebel Indian Cricket League. Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies want to submit teams alongside those from India, Australia, South Africa, England and Pakistan in 2009.

Money matters

£103m

Amount bid by Channel 4 in 1998 to seize TV rights to England's home Test matches from BBC

£220m

Amount bid by Sky and Five for England TV rights in 2004

£550m

ESPN Star's bid for nine-year TV rights for ICC matches in 2006

£550m

Sony-WSG's bid for ten-year rights for the Indian Premier League

£515m

ESPN Star's bid for ten-year rights for Champions League

£100,000

For winners of LV County Championship this year

£44,000

For winners of NatWest Pro40

£42,000

For winners of Twenty20 Cup

£21,000

For winners of a Test match in England

£1,350

For winners of first-class matches in England