Keith Arnold is to quit as Oxfordshire skipper after three years in charg. But the 44-year-old will continue playing for at least another season.

Keith Arnold Arnold will stand down after the three-day Minor Counties Championship game with Wales at Abergavenny, starting on Sunday.

The veteran seamer believes that fundamental changes must be made to the way the Oxfordshire Cricket Board runs the county senior side.

And he says he is not the man to oversee this process.

"The OCB have got to make some big decisions about the way the top side is picked, and it needs somebody new if any changes are made.

"We cannot compete with the players we have got.

"Our bowling is just not good enough, and it hurts me to say that, but you just have to look at all the scores that have been made against us.

"A lot of Oxfordshire's money goes on youth cricket, but at this precise moment we are lacking quality cricketers."

Arnold believes that it is time for Oxfordshire to consider abandoning its policy of not paying cricketers.

"We have never paid players, and I have always agreed with that over the course of my 25 years in the side. But it is time it was looked at again.

"It is no use having talented young players playing in a side that is getting hammered every week, which is what is happening at the moment.

"There have to be experienced players alongside them to help the side to be competitive and help the young players develop.

"If that means paying one person or maybe more, then so be it. But we have to recognise that the game has changed and all the other counties, who do pay players, have left us behind.

"Something has to be done, because it is not going to get any better any time soon. I can't see us being a good side for another two or three years at the least.

"I don't think it has to mean paying great sums to any old ex-professional. We have guys like Rob Cunliffe and Ben Gannon who have just come out of the first-class game.

"They are Oxon lads who have come through our youth system, and we perhaps should be recompensing them so that they could take time off from work to play for us."

Arnold has been skipper for three seasons, and has won just two Championship games in that time.

He admits that his spell in charge has not been a success in playing terms, but he says he has enjoyed every minute.

"It's not been particularly successful on the pitch, there is no point pretending that it has been," said Arnold.

"But it has been tremendous fun and a real honour."