England's centrally-contracted players will be made available to play for large parts of the competition, which begins in June 2010, while there are already discussions under way for the England and Wales Cricket Board to sign up foreign stars.

"Clearly we want to have some of the best players in the world," said England managing director Hugh Morris.

The talent is expected to be distributed around the 18 English counties via a draft system, the rules and regulations of which are still in their infancy.

There is currently little international cricket played around the world in June, which theoretically makes the cream of world talent available.

"We have a busy schedule of international cricket," added Morris.

"But the EPL will be in June and clearly we want to make sure that the England players will be available for at least part of it.

"We are fortunate that we already have some of them here and it's very important for that competition that our players will be able to play.

"In June, there is very little international cricket if any so potentially there would be good availability of some of the world's best players.

"The contracting or drafting of those players into EPL is something we will be needing to consider."