MARTYN Moxon believes changes need to be made to England’s central contract system if county cricket is to be viewed as “something that is worthwhile”.

In a lengthy statement released on Sunday, Yorkshire expressed their disappointment at the ECB’s decision to make Jonny Bairstow unavailable for the ongoing County Championship title decider against Middlesex.

England want him to rest ahead of their forthcoming tour of Bangladesh, which starts on September 30.

This is despite Bairstow not being one of the 11 centrally contracted players for 2015/16 and Yorkshire paying his wages.

Yorkshire will be compensated for Bairstow’s unavailability, but it is not enough to cover the club salary, according to Moxon.

The White Rose’s director of cricket has also insisted that his working relationship with director of England cricket Andrew Strauss and head coach Trevor Bayliss remains a good one.

“It’s just another example of the system being a problem,” said Moxon.

“Straussy has got his job to do and we’ve got ours. He’s a good bloke with a very difficult job, but it’s the system that is the problem.

“Jonny’s not a centrally contracted player, so we could say ‘no, he’s playing for us, technically’. It would be a big decision to do that.

“It’s the system. He has not been a centrally contracted player all summer, yet he’s played pretty much all of their cricket apart from a few ODIs and T20s. Is that right?

“Central contracts are given in September. Yes, the club gets compensation. But it doesn’t cover the salaries. It’s costing the counties money.

“That’s being looked into now, and it’s moving in the right direction with regards to remuneration for counties whose players aren’t available.

“But, in the past, it’s been shocking.

“(Giving more central contracts) is the best way of doing it then they can control who they want.

“Also, having a tour which starts so close to the end of the season, is that the right thing given there’s a lot of important county cricket to play?

“If we truly want county cricket to be viewed as something that is worthwhile, all this puts it into question.

“At the end of the day, we’ve had a good working relationship between myself, Straussy and Trevor.

“I’ve got no problem with our working relationship because they have tried this summer to accommodate us.

“I don’t want to bad mouth them, but I think it’s only right that we let our members and stakeholders know what the situation is because questions are coming ‘why is Jonny Bairstow not playing?’

“They have a right to know as members.

“We are just giving the facts.

“It was a plea for help because we had been told Jonny needed a rest.

“It was a plea for help because of Rash wanting a rest and the issues he’s got and also Jake Lehmann being called away to South Australia.

“They chose to stick with their original decision, and we’ve got to get on with it.

“Mark Arthur (Yorkshire’s chief executive), quite rightly, felt that our members, sponsors and everybody connected with Yorkshire cricket needed to know at least we tried.

“They are the facts, and we have not put anything out there that is not true. As far as we are concerned, we get on with it.”

Bairstow is likely to part of the new central contracts list for the forthcoming year, which is to be announced shortly.