Andy Nash has resigned from his role as a director of The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), after accusing the national governing body of bias in the way it treats the 18 First Class counties.

Nash, who has been tipped as a potential successor to current ECB chair Colin Graves, resigned as a protest to allegations – published by The Times last week – that the eight Test-hosting counties would receive payments in years they do not host Tests matches.

According to Nash, offering payments to the owners of Test grounds even when they don’t host matches would further disadvantage the 10 non-Test hosting clubs and create an uneven playing field by creating eight elite counties.

In his resignation letter, Nash alleged that the fees were agreed without the ECB board's approval – or even knowledge.

“I’ve recently become concerned the standards of corporate governance at ECB are falling well short of what’s acceptable and in all conscience I can’t allow myself to continue to be associated with it,” Nash wrote in a letter published by The Times.

“I would be failing in my duty as a director if I didn’t bring these to the board’s attention and this I’ve tried to do. The current fiasco over the actual/alleged/planned payments to Test match grounds is an exemplar.”

Hosting international games – and especially the five-day Test matches – is a lucrative business for English clubs, which have seen attendances at domestic First Class matches decline steadily.

Competition to host international cricket – including one day games and T20 matches – is fierce and many of the county clubs have invested heavily in their grounds in order to meet the requirements to host international cricket.

Governance reform is currently a hot topic within sport, following the publication of the government’s Code for Sports Governance in 2016 – and the controversy over the alleged secret payments comes less than a year after ECB launched a review into its own governance structure.