He has twice guided Queensland to success in Australia's Sheffield Shield but his methods and ideas, including computer analysis of performances, did not go down well with the traditionalists at Lord's and Middlesex finished second bottom in the championship.

Buchanan claims England's failure to win The Ashes since 1989 can be put down to problems in the county game.

"What England is drawing on at the moment is a squad of maybe 18 to 20 players who can play, not necessarily consistently, at Test level, whereas they should be drawing on 40 to 60 players," he said.

Mike Gatting: Expected to take over

"They've got infrastructure problems that they're trying to address but again it seems the county system is working against that because they're protecting their own self-interests."

Buchanan named Middlesex stalwart Mike Gatting and county captain Mark Ramprakash as the players most resistant to his attempts to update the county's approach to the game.

"In England you've got paid players, and out here in Australia we've got unpaid players. But out here we've got professionalism and in England there's no professionalism, or very little," he added.

"There's a certain brand of players and generally they're the ones who have risen to the top and are playing for England. The rest are really struggling to come to grips with what it does mean to be professional in your approach, what it does require to be a first-class cricketer or beyond.

"And as a consequence, the whole first class system is impacted by that and the overall standard of the cricket played is far below what we play here."

Gatting, now an England selector, is expected to take over as Middlesex coach next season.