Derbyshire head coach Mickey Arthur has argued that the ECB should consider blocking their players from participating in the IPL to strengthen the standard of the County Championship.

Arthur, 53, has been one of the most prominent coaches on the international circuit in recent times, overseeing South Africa, Pakistan, Australia and Sri Lanka at various points over the past two decades.

After relinquishing the Sri Lanka job, Arthur is readying himself for his first stint in county cricket and ahead of the 2022 season, spoke to The Times about England’s troubling Ashes defeat in Australia this winter.

Some of the post-series criticism was directed at the standard of county cricket. Arthur, however, was adamant that there isn’t a problem with county game and even argued that if you wanted to strengthen the County Championship, an option would be to recall players from the IPL.

“For so long county cricket has been a really good producer of international players,” Arthur told The Times. “I don’t think there’s a problem with the system, I really don’t. If you want the strength early season, unfortunately you are going to have to stop the players going to the IPL. They are playing there in the early part of the season just before the first Tests. You need your best players playing county cricket preparing for that. It’s not the counties’ fault, it’s not the players’ fault. Good luck having those conversations with the players though.”

Arthur, an experienced coach on the international circuit, also expressed his discomfort with sides not fielding their best team where possible.

“Rotation is a swear word to me,” he added. “I’m just not a fan of planning too far ahead and planned rest and rotation. I think you just get yourself in a mess if you try and plan too far ahead. I don’t think you should be changing every game. I have always said, ‘This is my best team,’ going into a Test or international match, and it rarely works out that way, because of injuries or other things. So rest and rotation tends to come fairly naturally and if you plan too far ahead in cricket, you get yourself in a bit of trouble.”