Cricket counties met at Edgbaston on Tuesday to discuss the introduction of a football-style transfer window to protect them against late call-ups from the Indian Premier League.
Twelve English cricketers are now participating in the IPL - with several top players getting late call-ups - despite the new county championship starting this Friday.
The meeting was chaired by Yorkshire's director of cricket, Martyn Moxon, who lost Liam Plunkett to the Delhi Daredevils on Saturday and David Willey to the Chennai Super Kings on Monday.
Surrey's plans were dealt a blow when Tom Curran was called up by Kolkata Knight Riders as a replacement for Mitchell Starc, and Nottinghamshire were given a similar problem last week when Alex Hales was called up by the Hyderabad Sunrisers as replacement for Australian David Warner.
Moxon said public statements will not be made until attendees at the meeting have fed back to their counties, but believes "everyone that was present felt the 18 counties should be protected".
"We find ourselves in an impossible situation with these late replacement requests," said Moxon.
"At the moment, we are potentially looking at a situation where if we deny a player an opportunity, we will be left with someone who is not completely focused on playing for Yorkshire. This would be counter-productive.
"With the number of domestic T20 contracts available worldwide, it is important that we future-proof the County Championship. I will be calling for the introduction of a cut-off date, after which players will not be allowed to go to the IPL.
"Hopefully this can gain national approval and be supported by the ECB."
Sky Sports News understands the counties also considered ways they could be compensated when losing their top players.
A successful IPL campaign could see players not returning to their counties until the end of the knockout stages on May 27.
"What we discussed today was very much about the game as a whole and not individual counties and their wishes or what benefits just them," said Moxon.
"We feel these decisions have to be made for the good of the game as a whole, to protect it and make it something that people want to play and watch.
"It's very much big picture thinking rather than localised, individual 'This suits Yorkshire, it might not suit Essex'."