England have announced a pared-down list of central contracts for 2022-23 with only 18 players on the main list, down from 20 last year, and two mainstays of the white-ball side in recent years – Dawid Malan and Jason Roy – among those not on it. The total number of players given any sort of contract is, however, up from 27 to 30.
Roy’s demotion comes after a prolonged spell of poor form that extended across the English summer, during which he averaged 24.20 in ODIs and 19.04 in T20s and the Hundred, down from career averages of 40.34 and 27.97. In T20 appearances for England he scored just 78 runs in six innings.
Malan, meanwhile, had just broken back into the Test side when the last contracts were awarded, but has dropped out of it again this year and despite playing all three games on England’s trip to the Netherlands in June is not a first choice in the 50-over format. While both Malan and Roy have been awarded increment contracts, designed to top up the county deals of players on the fringe of the team, the Surrey opener Rory Burns, who has not been selected since the end of last winter’s Ashes series, drops off the list completely.
Ben Foakes, Burns’s county teammate who has come into the Test side since the appointments of Ben Stokes as captain and Brendon McCullum as coach, has earned his first central contract, and, with England mindful of the appeal of the full-time franchise circuit for one of the most sought-after white-ball players in world cricket, Liam Livingstone is also on the main list for the first time. The other player now without a deal is Eoin Morgan, who retired from international cricket in June.
The inclusion of Jofra Archer, who has not played for England in any format since March 2021 thanks largely to a long-term elbow injury, on the main list is a show of faith in the 27-year-old, for whom no return date has been set. Zak Crawley keeps his central contract despite a mixed year in the Test side, while Alex Lees again misses out.
Though the number of increment contracts has increased from four to six, three of the players given them last year – Chris Jordan, Tom Curran and Dom Bess – no longer have any kind of ECB deal. David Willey is added to the list alongside Harry Brook, Matthew Potts and Reece Topley, for all of whom this constitutes a first central contract.
England men’s central contracts for 2022-23: Moeen Ali (Warwickshire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Jonathan Bairstow (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Zak Crawley (Kent), Sam Curran (Surrey), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Jack Leach (Somerset), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Ollie Robinson (Sussex), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham)
Increment contracts: Harry Brook (Yorkshire), Dawid Malan (Yorkshire), Matthew Potts (Durham), Jason Roy (Surrey), Reece Topley (Surrey), David Willey (Northamptonshire from 1 November 22)
Pace bowling development contracts: Brydon Carse (Durham), Matthew Fisher (Yorkshire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Craig Overton (Somerset), Jamie Overton (Surrey), Olly Stone (Nottinghamshire from 1 November 22).
While some of the omissions come as little surprise given recent selections, Malan and Jordan are still regularly seen in an England shirt and both are currently in Australia as part of England’s T20 World Cup squad. However both players only appear regularly in the shortest format, and with the focus set to shift to the 50-over game after that tournament ahead of a World Cup in 2023 they are likely to become more peripheral over the coming year.
“I feel we have rewarded those players who have made a significant impact over the previous 12 months and those we expect to be part of England’s plans over the next period,” said Rob Key, the managing director of men’s cricket. “The international game continues to evolve, and we must be mindful that we have to lead the way in player performance across the sport. The aim is to develop world-class players in all three formats as we strive to become the best team in the world.”
Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton and Olly Stone have all seen their pace bowling development contracts extended for another year, and new similar deals have been awarded to Durham’s Brydon Carse, Yorkshire’s Matthew Fisher and Surrey’s Jamie Overton. These deals see the ECB pay a portion of the players’ county contracts in exchange for having some control over their workload.
