We need to defend our game - ECB chief Gould

Surrey celebrate winning the 2024 County Championship

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has to "defend our game", its chief executive Richard Gould has said following criticism from the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA).

The governing body and the players' union have been at odds over new rules surrounding participation in overseas leagues and salary increases in The Hundred.

On Thursday, PCA chief executive Daryl Mitchell said there has been a "lack of communication and consultation" and a "lack of respect to the players".

Gould told BBC Sport: "Our responsibility is for a very wide pool of players. Some of the comments will come from a very small part of any membership. We need to listen to them – and we will – but we also need to balance them up to the needs of the game.

"We need to defend our game. We need to take it forward and there will be times it takes precedence over the priorities of an individual."

On Thursday it was announced the highest pay band in the men's Hundred will increase from £125,000 to £200,000 for the 2025 season, in the hope of attracting more of the world's best players.

However, increases at the lower end of the pay scale are much smaller. The lowest bracket has increased £1,000 from £30,000 to £31,000.

This has led to accusations that the cash boost – up by a total of 25% on last season – is only benefiting the marquee players, often from overseas, rather than those within the domestic game.

Gould said these increases are an "interim position" before new investment arrives from the sale of stakes in the eight Hundred teams.

"I understand the criticism because there will be a number of players, particularly in the men's side, that were hoping for bigger increases," he said.

"For the higher price bands for the men's game we have put more money into that because in the last few years we haven't seen enough of the top 50 male players in the world. We want to see more of them. Therefore we need to be paying more. We've taken that money and focused it in that area."

The new highest women's salary is £65,000, another incremental increase from the £15,000 when The Hundred began in 2021.

In 2023 the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket recommended equal salaries in The Hundred by 2025. Rather than the gap between men and women closing, it has widened.

"The gap has got bigger because of market dynamics," said Gould. "That wasn't a recommendation we said we could deliver on and we have been very up front on that."

Players' frustrations over Hundred salaries come on the back of disquiet surrounding new regulations governing no-objection certificates (NOC).

A player requires an NOC from the ECB in order to play in an overseas league.

As part of the changes the ECB intends to implement for 2025, no player with a contract to play red-ball cricket for their county will be granted an NOC during the English season, except to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

This seems set to rule out the Pakistan Super League, which is scheduled to clash with the IPL and early part of the English summer.

A player with a white-ball-only contract can still be granted an NOC. There is confusion over players who are usually white-ball-only yet still have provision in their contracts to play first-class cricket. Gould said these will be taken on a case-by-case basis.

"We need to protect our summer," said Gould. "When we have players under contract we want to encourage them to remain and play in our competitions. If they chose to become a complete freelancer, that's absolutely fine.

"We don't want to be issuing no-objection certificates for people to play in tournaments when we've got great tournaments for them to play in."

Gould also said he expects stakes in all eight Hundred teams to be sold, with "multiple parties" interested in each franchise.

On the Champions Trophy, which is in limbo after India refused to travel to host nation Pakistan, Gould expects the competition to take place in February as scheduled.

"Location is the one that is still being worked through," he said. "Quite sensibly, both Pakistan and India will be given a bit of time and space to work through those options.

"The value of Pakistan and India in global events is enormous and we want to make sure they're playing."