Three more of Leicestershire's rising young stars have signed contract extensions at Grace Road.

Former England under-19 players Josh Cobb and Greg Smith have committed to Leicestershire until at least 2012.

Nathan Buck, the fast bowler who has been selected for the England under-19 World Cup squad to play in New Zealand next month, has also signed a deal keeping him at the club until at least 2012.

They follow on from batsman James Taylor, who agreed a similar deal before he joined up with the England Performance Programme players in South Africa last month.

"I'm delighted that Josh, Greg and Nathan have signed new contracts with the club," said Leicestershire chief executive David Smith.

"They have all been through our development system. Josh started playing for Leicestershire under-11's in 2002 Greg in 2000 and Nathan in 2003."

The players' commitment underpins the way Smith and the Grace Road board are trying to move the club forward.

"This is exactly the young player development pipeline that the club is trying to produce and sustain as we are totally committed to producing players through our development system," Smith said.

The County have been busy since the end of the 2009 season tieing up deals with their young stars, while also completing moves for Will Jefferson, James Benning and Matthew Hoggard, who will take on the captaincy at next term.

All-rounder Andrew McDonald has been announced as Leicestershire's overseas player for 2010, but Smith says they remain hopeful of bringing Brad Hodge back to the club to take his place in the Foxes' Twenty20 challenge next year.

"I believe that our squad has been significantly strengthened by these recent signings. The experience that we have added can only benefit everyone at Leicestershire CCC," Smith said.

The ECB have changed the points system for next season's County Championship.

Teams will now be awarded 16 points for winning matches, as opposed to the 14-point tally which has been in effect for the past few years. Teams will also only be awarded three points for a draw, in contrast to the four previously on offer.

Bonus points remain the same – a maximum of five for batting and three for bowling – but sides will now have only 110 overs in which to achieve them, rather than the 120 available last year. David Smith, who is a member of the ECB Cricket Committee, sat on the working party that implemented the changes.

"The increase of two points for the win reflects our desire (ECB Cricket Committee) to encourage teams to play more attacking cricket rather than just playing cricket that reflects maximum bonus points plus the draw," he said.

"There is a merit in a hard-fought drawn match, as we saw in the First Test match between England and Australia at Cardiff this year. But by reducing the points awarded we feel that recognises the merit in a drawn game, but should also encourage teams to seek a positive result from the outset."