ECB Contract Shift
Okay so bit of background. In 2002, the ECB introduced the notion of central contracts. Central contracts have been awarded since then to up to 16 players, whose yearly salary (last year totaling £700k) would be paid directly by the ECB rather than the players' respective counties as well as appearance bonuses for every test, ODI and T20 that they appeared in. These central contracts would cover players playing all three forms of the game but more often than not, merely included mostly test players and the short form captain Eoin Morgan. However, those expected to feature regularly in the short form, or make some test appearances, were given what was called an increment contract. An increment contract meant that each player received the same appearance bonuses as centrally contracted players, and that their county would be paid compensation if they missed county games to play for their country, but the respective counties would continue to pay the player's wages.
And this system has worked, fairly well, on a rolling twelve month contract, given that the number of players who will have earned central and increment contracts changes on a yearly basis. To give you an idea, the players who earned a central contract in October 2015, up until the end of September this year were:
Alistair Cook (c), Ian Bell, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Moeen Ali, Mark Wood, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan.
Now looking at England's current test (and one day) side, the majority of those players' inclusion makes as much sense now as it did twelve months ago. But others...well. On top of that, here is the list of the 2015-16 increment contracts:
Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, James Taylor.
So bit part test players and hugely influential one day players. It's worth noting that making four test appearances (or ten short form appearances) in the previous year was enough to automatically secure an increment contract.
Now however, the ECB has decided to switch things up a bit and put the focus on one day cricket a little more, so has restructured. The way it works now is that there are two types of central contract: Test Contracts and White Ball Contracts as well as a drastically reduced but still existing increment contract.
The way that the new system works is that whilst test specialists (or players that have signed both contracts, of which there are four this year) still get their salary paid for by the ECB, the white ball specialists are upgraded. So instead of simply getting paid per appearance, they get their county salaries "supplemented" by the ECB. As already mentioned, up until this point, the only non-test playing one-day player to earn a central contract was skipper Morgan, so this is a huge step for the ECB.
With two major international short form tournaments being held in England in the next three years, this restructure makes total sense. It's a little confusing why some players have both test and white ball contracts, but you can see that the ECB wants to separate the two without continuing the idea that white ball cricketers are somehow inferior to test cricketers (although they are still understandably paid less money by the ECB).
So in terms of the players selected. The release of central contracts is always a big moment for journalists, as the ECB has made clear in the past that it only gives central contracts to those that it expects to make a major contribution to English cricket in the next twelve months. As such, the release of these new central contracts is no different.
Test Contracts: Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Alistair Cook, Steven Finn, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
White Ball Contracts: Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan, Liam Plunkett, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, David Willey
Increment Contract: Gary Ballance
Okay so first of all, there are no surprises in the White Ball Contracts list, as all of the players included are pivotal white ball players and expected to be England's best eleven over the next twelve months you would say, with the inclusion of the likes of Mark Wood, Liam Dawson, Ben Duckett and of course Bairstow also being likely.
So moving onto the test squad then. There were ten players selected, which immediately tells you that the ECB don't have eleven players that they trust in their test squad. In terms of batsmen, we can see who the three main men are: Cook, Root, Bairstow, which is no surprise. Nor are the all-rounders, Stokes, Woakes and Moeen. Six players expected to always feature.
Where it gets interesting is the bowlers. Jimmy and Broady, as expected, but with Stokes and Woakes already having central contracts, it's a little surprising that both Finn and Wood were given test contracts, rather than white ball contracts. Steven Finn of course, has featured regularly for England at test level this year and it would have been a blow for him not to be given a test contract, even though he's not expected to feature heavily on the spin heavy pitches of the subcontinent. But Wood is a more interesting interesting inclusion, meaning that England have offered six pace bowlers specialist test contracts. Even given that Stokes is an all-rounder and Woakes can bat, picking four specialist pace bowlers compared to three specialist batsmen is, if not surprising, certainly alarming.
So moving onto the batting situation, which is very telling, as much for who isn't included as who is. First of all, Gary Ballance is given an increment contract. I think that this is the right call, I'm not sure if the increment contracts are still automatic, given that Ballance played the required four test matches in 2016, but nevertheless it's an encouraging sign for him. More importantly, the lack of a replacement suggests that he will continue to feature at number four for England for the trips to India and Bangladesh.
More damning, but equally unexpected, is that Alex Hales only receives a white ball contract. Given that he will only miss two test matches through his decision not to travel to Bangladesh, this suggests that the ECB has either already decided to drop Hales as an opener for the trip to India, or hasn't got faith that if he does regain his spot, that Hales will be able to keep it. Either way, they do not feel his test career is promising enough to warrant a central contract, despite Hales featuring in the majority of test matches since the awarding of the 2015-16 contracts.
The glimmer of hope for Hales is that no other young batsmen, such as Hameed or Duckett, have been awarded increment contracts yet, which indicates that the ECB does not necessarily have a specific long term opener that they are willing to commit financial backing to other than Hales, who of course will receive payment from the ECB for his white ball efforts, although there was never any doubt of that, since he is still an essential member of the ODI side.
So overall, this central contract reshuffle is the perfect way for the ECB to place more importance on white ball cricket ahead of two major international tournaments hosted by them. Moreover, from the point of view of a journalist, it enables us even clearer analysis of which players the ECB trusts in which forms of the game over the next twelve months.
Whilst the inclusion of Mark Wood in the list of players receiving a test contract is arguably the only surprise in the listings, it nevertheless further highlights the test side's major issues, and casts an ugly shadow on the test future of Alex Hales. It will be very interesting to see the side that plays the first test against India in a month's time.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Fighting talk between Coleman and Koller. Tasty.
- Not so fighting talk from Nico Rosberg. Typical.
- Bad news for English winger Antony Watson. Broken jaw.
- Laura Kenny (sidebar that sounds weird): road cycling unequal.
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