AS Durham prepare to start the new season on minus 2.5 points because of exceeding the ECB's salary cap they are surprised that they are the only ones in breach.

Surrey are the obvious candidates for scrutiny after following up their extensive recruitment of recent years by signing South African Graeme Smith as captain, plus Ricky Ponting for two months in mid-season.

They have also brought in two 37-year-olds in left-arm spinner Gary Keedy from Lancashire and Vikram Solanki, who has followed former Worcestershire colleagues Steven Davies and Gareth Batty to the Oval.

Other signings in recent years have included Kevin Pietersen, Chris Tremlett, ex-Somerset all-rounder Zander de Bruyn and former Gloucestershire seamer Jon Lewis.

Unless there is a late change of heart, with Jacques Rudolph still rumoured to be on their radar, Durham will do without an overseas player this year. And their only signing has been South African youngster Keaton Jennings, while off-loading Michael Di Venuto, Liam Plunkett and Ian Blackwell.

Durham's chief executive, David Harker, said: "We always knew we would be in breach of the salary cap at some point because of how it works in terms of England players and we told the ECB that.

"We don't agree entirely with the cap or its mechanics, but even though we don't like the rules we will play by them and we never had any intention of not bringing the breach to the ECB's attention.

"Because of the uncertainty surrounding England call-ups it is almost impossible to give yourself sufficient headroom to deal with that. But we have tried to do that for this season.

"If a player is called up by England the amount of compensation we receive is deducted from the salary cap, but it doesn't cover the whole cost of the player. And if he's not going to be available for most of the season you have to have someone else to step in.

"Those counties who are recruiting and investing in players will find it difficult to do within the salary cap."

Nottinghamshire are another county who have recruited heavily and have a bigger squad than Durham's. They have bolstered it this winter by adding ex-Yorkshire player Ajmal Shahzad and have also signed Australian batsman Ed Cowan.

Ensuring they stay within the cap is one reason why Durham have tightened the purse strings and they will be wary about handing out any more hefty long-term contracts such as the four-year deal given to Steve Harmison.

"Contracts have to reflect the times we live in," said Harker. "We are still in the business of winning matches, but we have to be sustainable. Last season's weather cost us well over £100,000 "Membership is fairly static at 4,500, but we like to make it affordable and we reward the loyalty of those who have been with us from the start, so in terms of income from members we are no higher than mid-table.

"We hope to stage up to three concerts this year, but our meetings and events business is heavily related to the public sector, so it is has been hit by the cutbacks."

Durham attracted £2.4m of investment from Indian media tycoon Gautam Radia five years ago and while he continues to take an interest the world economic situation has prevented him from putting in further money.