The chief of Warwickshire County Cricket Club has called for cricket's governing body to stop sitting on its reserves and help the county game.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) saw its cash pile grow by almost a quarter to £44 million last year after a profit of more than £9 million.

Warwickshire chief executive Colin Povey said a more equitable approach to sharing income from the game could ease the "stress" on county cricket clubs which struggle to remain in the black.

The Edgbaston boss has outlined a wishlist to the ECB to help county clubs to manage their finances, including a less "greedy" approach to fee expectations and longer-term match schedules.

Mr Povey told the Post: "They sit on 30, 40, 50 million pound reserves while the counties continue to be tight for cash and in a challenging environment.

"If you go back a couple of years it was clearly not right that they had no reserves, but with the transformation that has gone on in the marketplace and if you stopped looking at the ECB in isolation and saw it as a group holding company for the game, then the stress levels at counties would be eased if they used finances differently. They could make it more comfortable.

"I'm not advocating an easy life but I don't think things need to be as tight as they are currently at the counties, which market the game and invest in players."

The ECB's latest accounts, for the year to January 31, 2014, show a turnover of £123.3 million, up from £111.2 million the year before, with profits rising to £9 million, compared to a £1 million loss in 2013.

By comparison, Warwickshire County Cricket Club announced a retained loss of £2.4 million for the year to September 30, 2013, with an operating profit of £4,500.

The ECB is currently consulting with clubs ahead of a major allocation of international fixtures – which are the primary means of profit-making for Warwickshire - and the Ashes also returns next year to Edgbaston.

Mr Povey said it could help by making England players available more often and by focusing derby matches at the start of the season so they are available.

From a financial perspective, he is asking for three things from the ECB: fixtures in as far advance as possible, a less "greedy" view on fee expectations, and for risk-reward to be better shared, for example with profit-sharing between the counties and the ECB.

Meanwhile, Mr Povey said a revamp of Twenty20 had helped the club – but he does not think it has reached its potential yet.

There has been a series of changes in the shorter form of the game, which Warwickshire now plays as the Birmingham Bears.

It is very different to the traditional form of the game – including live music from local bands, activities on the pitch between innings and mascot races – but Mr Povey said changes have not gone far enough.

He said: "I am not sure that the Twenty20 revamp has hit all the notes that the ECB and the counties expected.

"If I am a neutral observer watching the TV on a Friday night I am not convinced that the level of entertainment on offer is competing with the IPL or the Big Bash.

"That said, we can be pretty pleased with the way that T20 has gone this year – a 30 per cent rise in income from Twenty20 and a 50 per cent rise in ticket sales."

The club enjoyed its largest crowd for a domestic match since 2008 for the Twenty20 match against Worcestershire.

Meanwhile, the switch to the Birmingham Bears name has not been universally popular but Mr Povey said it had started to generate a return. He said: "I think the Birmingham Bears has definitely helped us engage with corporate Birmingham better, and also helped in terms of community engagement.

"There have been quite a lot of pluses but I don't think the competition is hitting the high notes it should be.

"In my view, they have got to be more creative with the broadcast coverage.

"It looks a bit like the same old faces sitting around saying the same old stuff, whereas if you look at what BT has done with rugby, they have done something different and it has worked.

"For a lot of these people it is not about cricket. We have got to view these games a lot more as a community day, so if the kids want to stop watching the game and do something else there is something else out back for them.

"It is an interesting space, and somewhere where there is more room to grow."

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