THERE have been professionals in local cricket in the North of England for over a century, in fact in the early 1890's the Lancashire League brought in a rule restricting the number to one per club.

In the early days professionals were often former test or county men along with the best local players, but between the First and Second World Wars the Lancashire and Central Leagues began recruiting top international players from around the world.

With the inception of the IPL and other major one-day and T20 competitions around the world in the past 10 years the supply of international standard players has all but dried up, and the standard of professionals generally has fallen. This has not been helped by rules preventing players who have not played first-class cricket in the past two years from playing as professionals in the leagues as many of our best pro's have been players at the end of their first-class career, but with sufficient experience of league cricket still to make a significant impact, Rod Estwick and Iqbal Sikkander springing to mind.

The Bolton League have always insisted that clubs have a professional, either a player from overseas who is playing first-class cricket, or a UK-based player meeting certain standards. This season the requirement was relaxed to accommodate the former Bolton Association clubs who were no longer in the habit of having a paid man.

This was only a temporary measure and will need to be reviewed for 2017. My personal feelings are that clubs in the top division should still have an overseas first-class player, a UK-based player meeting certain criteria, for example scoring over 600 league runs or taking over 60 league wickets in a league of a similar standard, or a good quality overseas player. The last of these is the most difficult to monitor, and I am aware that around the local leagues clubs have imported players who have been a disappointment, scoring runs and taking wickets at a rate you would expect from a decent local player.

For the lower division the standards possibly don't have to be so high, and I wouldn't mind a club perhaps taking a gamble on a younger overseas player with potential, but who has not reached the standards expected in the top division, and also the runs and wickets requirements could perhaps be reduced for UK-based players. The more ambitious clubs will still be able to sign the first-class player.

For the UK-based player in either division for the sake of consistency only league wickets should be taken into consideration, as so many leagues are now playing T20 and other shorter forms of the game in which, given a good cup run, a player can easily double his tally of runs and wickets outside the league programme.

Changing the subject, for most clubs mid-table, the priority is a place in the top 10, to be assured of a place in the higher division in 2017, but clubs will also be trying to finish in the top eight for Lancashire KO qualification next season.

At the moment I think as many as 10 first teams and nine second teams will be going into September uncertain of which division they will be in next year. I imagine come the end of the season at least one team will be regretting throwing wickets away in a game they couldn't win rather than batting for a bonus point.