"Some of the counties are now paying unbelievably big wages," Rhodes told BBC Hereford and Worcester.
"It make life difficult in signing players. It puts everybody's price up, we can't afford those sorts of guys."
Rhodes added: "You have to be smart and try and get the right balance by getting good players at the right price."
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With the growing disparity between counties, Worcestershire are a prime example of a side who are struggling to compete with their more affluent rivals and it is difficult to see quite how the gap will anything but widen.
They have been badly hit in the off-season so far,
losing a raft of players to better paid deals elsewhere and is fast becoming a trend throughout the game.
Contraction - ie, the reduction of the number of counties - is an idea often floated, but with self preservation in mind always rejected by county chairmen and it will take a huge sea change to ever get to the stage where the idea is even considered, let alone one that is implemented.
You feel that something has to be done though to stave off the growing gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots'. Counties will perhaps always lose players to better offers elsewhere, that is the nature of competition, but to not be adequately compensated for those - often younger - players who have been brought through the ranks only to walk out (which they are entitled to do of course) without being compensated is an issue that does need to be addressed, and should help reduce the gap somewhat.