The Professional Cricketers’ Association has warned that The Hundred could lead to the creation of super-counties and compromise the integrity of domestic cricket if the eight host venues are allowed to transfer existing coaching set-ups over to their new teams.

The players’ union and the England and Wales Cricket Board had wanted to ensure differentiation between the new 100-ball competition and the county game by having independent directors of cricket and coaches at the eight teams. It would mean Alec Stewart, say, could not run both Surrey’s first XI and the side based at the Oval.

But the counties are reported to have rejected this in favour of allowing cross-over, something the PCA chairman, Daryl Mitchell, fears could become hugely problematic. The first player draft is due to take place in October and playing budgets of £1.2m per team for the men’s competition, which starts in 2020, and conflicts of interest could arise.

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“From the outset this competition was sold as fresh and completely different but if you have local directors or cricket and coaches running the team, it’s potentially neither,” Mitchell told The Observer. “You run the risk of the game going towards eight super-counties and end up with a situation where it leads to player bias in terms of recruitment.

“Everyone of our players deserves a chance to be considered in the draft but without independent coaching set-ups it could also lead to player bias by those selecting squads. Will it be the best 96 [English] players or will it depend on who plays for who in county cricket?

“We have already had members asking us whether they should look to join a host county and, believing these management roles to be independent, we have always said this shouldn’t make any difference to their chances of featuring in The Hundred.”

A comparable situation occurred in Australia last year when Western Australia were accused of contract bundling – handing out generous state deals to players as a way of keeping the Perth Scorchers under the Big Bash League’s salary cap. Justin Langer, who was head coach of both teams at the time, denied it had taken place.

Mitchell said: “Doubling up directors of cricket [at counties and their equivalent Hundred team] could in effect be sticking an extra million quid on that county’s salary cap.

“Another issue that could arise is when a Hundred team decides whether or not to release squad players back into the county 50-over competition [which will run concurrently]. Teams could question whether this has been done to favour one team or go against another.

“I’m not saying this will necessarily happen but it could lead to situations where it is questioned and that is a perception issue. That would lead to ill-feeling in the game and undermine the whole integrity of the competition. It opens up a whole can of worms.”

Meanwhile the ECB is close to having The Hundred’s playing conditions signed off by the 18 first-class counties. The governing body received 10 “yes” votes from 10 ballot papers at the start of last week, with just two more required for the green light.