Somerset chairman Andy Nash believes a salary cap is inevitable in county cricket to avoid the wage excesses of Premier League football.

Nash cited the interest shown in Gloucestershire's Alex Gidman last summer as an example of what the sport should try to avoid.

He said: "We welcome the salary cap. Last year Surrey made an offer of £150,000 to Alex Gidman which caused many problems at Gloucestershire.

"We don't want cricket to go the same way as Premier League soccer. It will be introduced around our current level of £1.8 million.

"It will be a guideline for the first year and if you are caught cheating after that you will be expelled from the first-class game."

Gidman, who was also courted by Warwickshire, was recently appointed captain of Gloucestershire, replacing Jon Lewis.

Surrey's typical annual income is around £13m with fellow international match grounds Lancashire at £12m and Hampshire at £10m. By comparison, Somerset's normal income is £4m, hence their interest in the salary cap.

Somerset's unprecedented profit of £4.4m for the last financial year was a total one-off because of land deals.

Meanwhile, director of cricket Brian Rose believes this summer will not be the last season to feature a 40 overs per side competition.

The Pro40 League will be disbanded in September and replaced by another Twenty20 slog-fest. But Rose expects the highly popular form of the game to re-appear sooner or later.

He said: "I think the Pro40 will be back in some form or another in the next two or three years."

Nash added: "The England and Wales Cricket Board have backed the wrong horse in doing away with the 40 overs rather than the 50. We will continue to make the most robust representations with the ECB on that."