The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is expected to announce a record 39 central contracts next week, according to a report by Telegraph’s Will Macpherson, the longest list England have ever issued. The group will include 30 full contracts and nine development deals, which is nine more than last year. The expansion has been made possible by the retirements of Ben Stokes and Mark Wood, which freed up room in the contract budget, while Zak Crawley and Luke Wood are expected to drop off the list.
Why the retirements widen the list
The ECB’s agreement with the Team England Player Partnership (TEPP) allocates a pot of money for player contracts, and all of it must be spent on those deals rather than on other parts of the England team or the board’s budget. The savings from Stokes and Wood therefore could not be banked elsewhere, and have instead allowed England to give some key players handsome pay rises while also bringing in more fringe players. With around 420 English-qualified male professionals having featured in the domestic game this summer, almost 10 per cent of them could now hold an England deal of some form.
The system has changed considerably since central contracts were first introduced at the turn of the century, when only a dozen were handed out. As recently as 2013-14, when Joe Root received his first contract, just 11 players were on a list that focused entirely on Test cricket. The list has swelled in recent years and, for the last three, has included certain key players on multi-year deals.
New faces and returning names
Eight new names are expected on the full list. They include Henry Crocombe, the uncapped fast bowler who is moving from Sussex to Surrey in the off-season and has been named in England’s ODI squad for the tour of Pakistan this month. As previously reported by Telegraph Sport, Emilio Gay, Jordan Cox and Dan Lawrence will receive their first deals. Ollie Robinson is set to return, and seamers Sam Cook and Matt Fisher are in line for full contracts.
Ollie Pope, Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed are expected to keep their deals despite being on the fringes. The probable full list is:
- Batters: Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Jos Buttler, Emilio Gay, Phil Salt, Jordan Cox, Dan Lawrence, Jamie Smith, Ollie Pope and Tom Banton
- All-rounders: Will Jacks, Sam Curran, Rehan Ahmed, Jamie Overton and Liam Dawson
- Bowlers: Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue, Brydon Carse, Sonny Baker, Sam Cook, Matt Fisher, Matthew Potts, Henry Crocombe, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid and Shoaib Bashir
Pay levels and contract lengths
There is now far greater flexibility in what a player earns from a central deal. Leading players receive retainers worth more than £1 million (approximately US$1.32 million) a year, while lower-tier contracts, including those for white-ball squad players, can be worth around £150,000 (approximately US$198K).
Fewer multi-year contracts are expected this time. More than half of last year’s full deals ran for two years, but longer agreements are now likely to be reserved for key fast bowlers and a small group of batters, including Root, Brook and Bethell. Duckett and Smith, despite being established Test regulars, are expected to receive one-year deals.
Development contracts and the Lions plan
Development contracts have been reworked as well. On a full contract the ECB pays the player rather than the county, but on a development deal the county continues to pay the player, who also receives a top-up from the ECB that gives the national team some control over workload. In recent years these went exclusively to fast bowlers, whose workloads need particularly close management, and none of last year’s four recipients made an England squad in any format.
This year’s nine are not limited to quicks. At least three spinners are understood to be included: Sussex’s James Coles, Glamorgan’s Mason Crane and Nottinghamshire’s Liam Patterson-White. Coles and Crane are travelling to Pakistan with England, while Patterson-White is on the radar for Test honours this winter. Durham opener Ben McKinney and Yorkshire all-rounder Matthew Revis are also expected to feature, and Somerset wicketkeeper-batter Thomas Rew, who missed the second half of the season injured, could be offered a deal.
The wider net is tied to England’s plans for the Lions. Under Head Coach Jonathan Trott, the programme has three tours this winter, to the Caribbean, South Africa and Sri Lanka, exposing future internationals to overseas conditions and to 50-over cricket, which the domestic system currently does not provide. There is talk that more contracted players will join Lions tours when they are not involved with the first team.
Players on development deals remain free to take franchise contracts, which often pay far better than a Lions tour. If a tour is better for a player’s medium-term development, though, the modest investment England have made gives them a say over which route he takes. The contract list is due to be announced next week.
