There was some interesting news from the England and Wales Cricket Board last week, namely that, at last, they are trying to do something to curb the ever increasing amount of foreign players flooding into county cricket by the back door - in other words those dreaded EU players, who qualify by a variety of means - most lately through the Kolpak ruling.

Most of you will probably know that this subject is a real bug bear of mine, but I can assure you that I am not the only one. Everyone I speak to within the county game feels the same, and yet the problem continues to escalate at an alarming rate.

What the EWCB announced last week was that it was going to introduce a performance element to its fee payment structure to the counties - in other words a small percentage of the £1.3 m it gives to each county will be subject to a set of key criteria before it is paid.

These key criteria are a little long winded - they have to be so that the EWCB can avoid being legally challenged - but they include the number of players produced who play for England and the number of England qualified players in the county's squad.

Unfortunately, it seems that that percentage will only be about £50,000, which works out as about four per cent of the total hand out. So really the whole thing is, at the moment, little more than a sop to try and placate those like me who are protesting so much.

It is the EWCB - or rather the First Class Forum, which is made up of representatives of the 18 counties plus the MCC - saying they are doing something about this problem, but in truth they are doing very little. Yes, there is the possibility that this percentage will increase in time, but until it does, I'm afraid that you will have to continue to put up with me banging on about it.

Already we have seen Hampshire signing Zimbabwean Sean Ervine on a Kolpak - who for those of you not au fait with the name is a Slovakian handball player who successfully brought a case against the German league he was playing in, challenging their ruling on non-EU players. The court ruled that because Slovakia has a trade agreement with the EU, then Kolpak could be classed as an EU player.

This has had serious ramifications in all sorts of sports, including rugby union, because those countries with EU trade agreements include most of the Caribbean islands, all the Pacific islands and South Africa. Very soon Australia and New Zealand will join this list and then virtually everyone in the world will be able to come over here and play county cricket as a local - as long, of course, that they can obtain the required visa, which seems pretty easy given the recent changes to the Holiday Working Visa, which allows people under 30 to stay for two years.

So the bottom line is that this new initiative from the EWCB is unlikely to change much. It is said that the percentage is low at first so that the counties can get their house in order before it is upped.

But then some counties have some serious work to do. Northamptonshire, under their South African coach Kepler Wessels, will be a haven for Boks next summer, with even Wessels' son, who is a wicketkeeper, being offered a contract.

It is thought that Graeme Swann, the off-spinning all-rounder currently at the Academy in Loughborough, along with our own Mike Powell and the Harrison brothers, left for Nottinghamshire mainly because of this policy, which so obviously seems to be neglecting local talent.

Most home-bred county players are up in arms about the influx. Many reckon that Worcestershire's Ben Smith resigned as captain last season because Zimbabwean Ray Price being signed on a Kolpak was the last straw in a succession of decisions with which he disagreed. That has never been confirmed though.

There has been plenty of player movement since the end of last season, with the biggest move being announced this week with Kevin Pietersen - still an EU player until next week when he qualifies for England on residency - moving from Nottinghamshire to Hampshire. I wonder what it must be like being a young cricketer in the Hampshire set up - must be pretty disheartening I reckon, because all they seem to do is buy in talent from elsewhere - the aforementioned Ervine, John Crawley, Alan Mullally, Nic Pothas, Greg Lamb (the last two being EU players) etc..

Thankfully none of this ridiculous business involves Glamorgan but one piece of county gossip which might interest Glamorgan followers is that it is thought that Jimmy Maher has been approached by Somerset with a view to being their skipper next season. Somerset have already publicly stated that they are searching for an overseas leader, and it is thought their high profile attempts to sign Sourav Ganguly and Graeme Smith have failed, thus their interest in Maher, currently the Queensland captain, of course. Keep an eye out for that story.