England captain Michael Vaughan hopes England's new 25-man central squad will prove an incentive for county players to break into the top tier of English cricket.

The plan for an extended squad was included in the ECB's new strategy for cricket in an attempt to give coach Duncan Fletcher greater control over all the leading English players.

It is a scheme which already runs in South Africa and Australia and Vaughan believes it could act as a major spur to players around the country as they attempt to break into the elite squad.

"For Duncan to have a pool of 25 players will certainly be of great value,'' he said.

"He will be able to pull someone out of a game if need be, or there may be special coaching sessions.

"He may also be able to give someone a rest or bring him along to a Test match; there are so many things you can do when you are in control of the players.

"It also gives the players something to aim for and strive to get into that 25. If they can get into that 25 they know they will be close to an international position which is what we hope all players in county cricket are aiming for.''

"A successful England team playing well against anybody gets a lot of credit, but a successful England team playing against Australia will certainly generate a lot of news,'' added Vaughan, who leads England in an Ashes Test for the first time on July 21 at Lord's.

"I have realised over the past few months just how big this Ashes series is going to be just from the amount of people asking about it.

"I guess the expectation levels have been driven higher and higher by certain quarters and when they start talking about cricket in March and April you know that cricket is going be in the forefront of people's minds this summer which can only be good for the game.''

20 Apr, 2005