Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, will on Wednesday announce the most significant overhaul of the central contract structure since its inception with the introduction of new “white-ball” deals that, in some cases, could triple the amount of money paid to limited-overs specialists.

Strauss is keen to address an imbalance that has previously seen the Test side given priority over the one-day and Twenty20 teams, having long spoken about the issue since his appointment in May last year following England’s harrowing World Cup campaign.

A considerable step towards achieving this will be made when the England and Wales Cricket Board name the recipients of central contracts for 2016-17, as part of a revamped system that will mean deals are divided along Test and limited-overs lines with players who feature in all formats awarded two salaries.

Under the previous structure, central contracts were handed to mainstays of the Test side, with fringe players and those who only featured in limited-overs cricket given “increment” contracts which earned them a flat fee of around £50,000 on top of their county salaries, following a totting up of appearances. Eoin Morgan, the one-day and Twenty20 captain, was the only limited-overs specialist to earn a central contract last year.

But now red-ball and white-ball cricket will be treated as separate entities, with salaries in each based on a grading system in terms of a player’s importance to each setup. It means the likes of Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, who are first-team regulars in all three formats, will be the biggest beneficiaries from the dual-contract system.

Despite the split, only Test contracts will retain all the features in place under the previous central contract system, which mean England take over the player’s county contracts and have full control over their schedule. The white-ball contracts, in the case of specialists such as Morgan, Jason Roy and Alex Hales, will still sit on top of their country earnings like the increment deals they replace.

But rather than the flat fee that previously existed, the grading system will earn the best players significantly more – understood to be up to £160,000 in some cases – meaning that for the first time since central contracts were introduced in 2000, cricketers who specialise in white-ball cricket could earn more than some of their Test counterparts, whose salaries, in some cases, could now be reduced.

As well as being paid by their white-ball contracts and county deals, one-day specialists will also be able to seek employment in Twenty20 leagues overseas such as the Indian Premier League and Australia’s Big Bash League, thus making it a more attractive international career path than ever before. England, however, would still retain the right to veto any such stints should they believe a player needs a rest.

Speaking at the start of September, Strauss said: “We have spoken ad nauseam about taking white-ball cricket more seriously and creating a balance but I don’t think our system, as it stands, does that. We are working on a system that does that better.”

It remains to be seen whether this new contract structure is a holding pattern, however, with Strauss essentially reworking a budget that remains pegged to current broadcast rights, which run until the end of the 2019 home season.

In the short term, increased money for one-day players is welcomed by them and the latest innovation by Strauss as he looks to turn England, the only major Test nation not to win a 50-over ICC tournament, into challengers for next year’s Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup, both of which are being held on home soil.

His reign has already allowed England to become more flexible in terms of players featuring in overseas Twenty20 leagues, while he has also created a North v South series that begins in March next year in the United Arab Emirates as a proving ground for the next-best one-day players in county cricket.