WORCESTERSHIRE chairman John Elliot has written to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on behalf of the New Road club, requesting a dividend pay-out for all county cricket clubs that do not host Test matches.

This summer's Ashes triumph saw unprecedented interest in cricket across the country, which led to bumper attendances at all five Test matches.

This swelled the coffers at Surrey, Middlesex, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Lancashire by no small amount and Worcestershire have spoken up for the non-Test match grounds who feel entitled to a larger slice of the profits.

County chief executive Mark Newton believes a one-off dividend should be paid to all county cricket clubs that did not host a Test match over the summer.

He said: "We (county cricket clubs) are all stakeholders in the ECB and, as in any business, if a company has an exceptionally good year, the stakeholders should be rewarded with a dividend.

"We at Worcestershire have ex-pressed this to the ECB in writing and they are considering the matter. I can't go into figures at the moment, but we hope to have an answer by the end of March."

However, the 'smaller' counties' claims for a bigger share of the revenue generated by hosting Test matches have fallen on deaf ears at Old Trafford. Lancashire made a record profit of £580,164 on the back of England's Ashes-winning summer, but chairman Jack Simmons feels non-Test counties are trying to make profit on the back of the Test match venues' hard work.

He said: "I'm pleased we've made the biggest profit Lancashire has ever made, but I'm disappointed that other counties want to get on the bandwagon for not having done anything. If we are to stay at Old Trafford we need to spend £25million upgrading our facilities. I can't see some of the smaller counties committing themselves to that."

Newton added: "We are not talking about huge sums of money. The Test match grounds have had great benefits from the Ashes and maybe we should all share in that."

Despite not benefiting from the Ashes 'bonanza', Worcestershire have posted a surplus of around £50,000 for each of the last three years. However, the outlook is not so bright for some counties, with Kent suffering a £309,998 record loss last term.