Colin Graves is fighting to retain his authority as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board after stinging criticism in a resignation letter by board member Andy Nash on Wednesday.

Nash accused Graves of presiding over a “fiasco” allocation of England matches last month, culminating in the failure to reveal to the board compensation payments of £500,000 to the major grounds in the summers when they do not host Tests. Nash believes this will further widen the financial gap between the large and small counties and was angered that, as a board member, he was not informed of the payments.

It follows on from concerns that the counties have not been kept fully informed of developments in the new Twenty20 competition and a lack of risk assessment by the board on the new competition, which was voted through last year.

“I’ve recently become concerned that the standards of corporate governance at ECB are falling well short of what’s acceptable and in all conscience, I can’t allow myself to continue to be associated with it,” he wrote to Graves. “I would be failing in my duty as a director if I didn’t bring these to the board’s attention and this I’ve tried to do. The current fiasco over the actual/alleged/planned payments to Test match grounds is an exemplar. Whether intentional or not it clearly signals to many a move to promote eight counties as the first among equals. As an ardent supporter of the 18 first-class counties, this is not a direction of travel I can live with.