Discarded England opener Zak Crawley has received another setback in his bid to turn his international career around, missing out on a central contract as the ECB unveiled an unprecedentedly long list.
A whopping 39 players have earned contracts – nearly a tenth of the nation’s professional cricketers – with Crawley’s opener replacement Emilio Gay and resurgent seamer Ollie Robinson among previously uncontracted players to earn a deal.
Captain Joe Root and stars Harry Brook, Jofra Archer and Jacob Bethell are among 11 players who have been given two-year contracts, while nine of the 39 are on development deals.
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The list includes players from all three formats, with forgotten spinner Mason Crane, who played his one and only Test in Australia in the 2017/18 Ashes, earning a development contract.
However, there was no room for Crawley, who hasn’t featured at Test level since England’s disastrous tour of Australia last summer.
The much-maligned 28-year old averaged just 27.3 for the series, including a pair in the first Test in Perth, and was dropped from the team for home series against New Zealand and Pakistan following a poor start to the County Championship.
Among the poster boys for ‘Bazball’, Crawley had previously played all but three Tests under Brendon McCullum’s four-year tenure as coach, memorably hitting Pat Cummins for four off the first ball of the 2023 Ashes.
He ended that series as England’s top run-scorer, but a record of just five centuries in 64 Tests at an average of 31.18 appears to have his cards marked.
Among those snubbed for the multi-year option were opener Ben Duckett and wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, with England’s managing director of men’s cricket Rob Key saying he hoped the decision would provide a catalyst to get both back to their best after recent lean runs of form.
“We feel this is the best thing that gets the best out of those guys,” Key told Sky Sports.
Exiled quick Brydon Carse will serve out the second year of his two-year deal despite being pushed out of the Test squad following a nightclub incident that saw him escorted from the venue in handcuffs in August.
Crawley is one of five players on the previous contract list to miss out on a new deal, alongside retired duo Ben Stokes and Mark Wood.
All up, the ECB will pay £16 million ($A30m) worth of contracts over the next year, with a deal struck between the governing body and the Team England Player Partnership preventing funds being banked.
The retirements of Stokes and Wood, both on reportedly lucrative contracts, allowed the significant expansion to the list.
“In a generation, England central contracts have morphed from a slim 12-man unit, designed to give shape and continuity to the Test team, to a broader group,” former great Michael Atherton wrote in The Times.
“Almost one in ten of the entire professional cohort — 39 players in all — has some kind of contractual relationship with the ECB rather than, or as well as, their county.”
FULL ENGLAND CONTRACTS LIST
Two-year deals: Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Harry Crocombe, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Joe Root, Josh Tongue.
One-year deals: Rehan Ahmed, Tom Banton, Shoaib Bashir, Jos Buttler, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Liam Dawson, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Emilio Gay, Dan Lawrence, Saqib Mahmood, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Ollie Robinson, Phil Salt, Jamie Smith.
Development deals: James Coles, Mason Crane, Josh Hull, Eddie Jack, Ben McKinney, Liam Patterson-White, Thomas Rew, Matthew Revis, Mitch Stanley.
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