The European Commission is poised to close the Kolpak loophole and allow the ECB to limit the number of non-European players taking part in county cricket.

At present, several countries, most notably South Africa and some in the Caribbean, are signatories to the Cotonou treaty with the European Union, which was agreed in 2000. This has, until now, been interpreted as allowing freedom of labour for people from those countries inside the EU, and that has led to an explosion in the number of Kolpak players in county cricket. At present, there are approximately 64 on contract.

At a conference this week, Michal Krejza, the head of the commission's sports unit, said: "It is the decision of individual member states to admit Cotonou players, not the European Union."

This will give an opening for the ECB to take action and it may well be that it will now dip a toe in the water and start refusing Kolpak registrations, although it will not invalidate any existing contracts.

"The Kolpak issue is an interesting one; our players are all on contracts that take them to at least 2010 so any change in the ruling I guess would have to be phased in," David Smith, Leicestershire's chief executive, told Cricinfo. "But it would have an impact on all sports in the longer term. I believe Kolpaks have added value to the county game."