It is time to check on the top performers in the Sussex League and none of them show the successful development of emerging English talent.

Leading wicket takers in both the Premier League and the Second Division are overseas players in Naeem Akhtar of Crowborough and South African Mark Johnson of St James's.

Australian Ben Cameron at Worthing passed 1,000 runs in the top flight and former Sussex professional Jamie Hall went into today's game looking likely to have the highest run aggregate in the Second Division.

The ECB seems loathe to accept that overseas players and ex-pros may not actually be what Lord MacLaurin had in mind when he talked of "raising the standard."

The clubs will be those who ultimately make the decisions as to any restriction on overseas players but there is no doubt that if the Premier League concept is to really work more money will have to be found from the game's income to fund the development of players.

To this end the document being considered by the Sussex Board having been sent a draft of the ECB's strategy will doubtless conclude that more will have to found to bring in high level coaching at club level.

There will be an interesting anomaly when the Sussex Board XI play at Hastings next Thursday to try and clinch a place among the big boys in next year's C&G Trophy.

The competition's regulations allow only one overseas player to be registered for the Board games and Western Australian David Hussey from Horsham is the man who has been playing this season.

Hussey is moving to Melbourne to try his luck with Victoria next month and is unlikely to be in England next season. The Sussex Board will probably seek to register another overseas player from round three onwards in 2002.

The ECB competitions committee formulates the regulations and it has dawned on them somewhat belatedly that Board sides have to play under different rules than county sides in the same competition.

Mark Davis, Bas Zuiderent, Tim Ambrose and Murray Goodwin can all play for Sussex in the C&G but, for a Board side, only one such player would be allowed.