A new fund to help regional newspaper coverage of county cricket has been announced as part of an awards scheme by the sport’s governing body.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has unveiled the initiative as part of its annual County Cricket Journalism Awards, for which it is now welcoming entries.

The fund has been launched in support of its Regional Newspaper of the Year award, which was won last year by Newcastle-based daily The Journal.

According to the ECB, awards from the £2,500 fund will be made “to assist regional newspapers in supplementing existing county coverage provided by staff reporters”.

The category is open to any daily, evening or weekly regional newspaper in England and Wales, with entrants required to submit a maximum of five articles highlighting their newspaper’s coverage of county cricket since 1 January 2016.

Entrants are also required to supply a short statement of no more than 200 words explaining how the publication improved its coverage of county cricket in 2016 , and the judging panel will consider the resource and numbers of staff available to different regional titles before making its final decision.

Sponsorship of the award comes from the Cricket Writers’ Club in association with Benenden Health, Smile Group Travel and William Hill.

Other awards up for grabs include Young County Journalist of the Year, open to journalists who were under the age of 30 on 1 January 2016.

The winner of that accolade will receive £3,000 to fund a week-long trip to the United Arab Emirates next March to report on the new North v South 50-Over tournament, while wo runners-up will each receive a £1,000 award to fund reporting on next summer’s season.

Entries can be made by post with photocopies of articles to the below address to Gemma Marsh, ECB, Lord’s Cricket Ground, London, NW8 8QZ.

Alternatively, they can be submitted via email with PDFs of articles to [email protected].

The closing date for submissions is 3 October.