Multi-year deals and Stokes’ rejection: Five things we learned from the ECB’s central contract announcement

Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue have all been offered contracts for the first time, while Matthew Fisher, Saqib Mahmood and John Turner have been offered development contracts.

Here five things we learned from the announcement.

Franchise vs Country battle looming ever larger

The fact the ECB are offering multi-year deals at all is significant. With 18 players now locked into playing for England for at least two years, the ECB have gone some way to securing the short-term future. As players look to franchise cricket for financial security towards the back-end of their careers, and with many of England’s key players approaching a crunch point around potential earnings during their remaining shelf-life, it was imperative for the ECB to act. International careers can be over in a heartbeat, a string of dodgy performances here, a redirection with the side there. In some aspects, franchises can offer more security for less work and more reward. While the ECB can’t offer the lucrative sums many franchises are able to, by making ground on the job security front, it shows they’re attempting to close the gap.

However, plenty of questions still remain regarding the new system. For example, it’s unclear whether it now means the ECB will prevent players from accepting franchise deals which clash with England commitments. While the multi-year deals may slightly decrease the urgency of the franchise-country battle, they’ve by no means won it.

Stokes’ future path unclear

Ben Stokes reportedly turned down the offer of a three-year deal, instead taking a one-year contract. The decision keeps his options open, with his constant injury worries casting doubt over the longevity of his career. It’s slightly concerning, however, that English cricket’s governing body can’t persuade its red ball captain, and best player, to sign on for more than 12 months. Rob Key, the ECB’s managing director, said to Sky of Stokes’ decision: “By no means does it mean that Ben Stokes doesn’t want to play for England. As captain of our Test team, all he ever talks about is how we can keep getting better and what we’re doing… I wouldn’t read into [the length of his contract] at all.”

Regardless of Key brushing it off, the decision casts uncertainty around Stokes’ future, and how long he’ll continue to play for England.

Bowlers the biggest winners

Among the recipients of multi-year deal offers were Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue. Given that Atkinson received his first England call-up last month and Potts has represented England three times in the last 12 months, twice in the ‘B’ team ODI series against Ireland, locking themselves in for two years on the England payroll seems a big result. That’s not to say none of these players deserve central contracts, but the ECB saying at this point they think all will be regulars for England in 2025 is a big call.

Three more years of Wood

Mark Wood is among the three players offered a three-year deal. Given the uncertainty around whether he would opt to play in the ILT20 over featuring in the Test tour of India early next year, that decision feels like a reaction. Wood’s near-constant injuries have put him in the position where, when fit, taking advantage of franchise deals probably makes more financial sense than playing back-to-back Test matches and giving his ankle a bashing. That he’s now inked into England’s thinking until 2026 not only shows how desperate they are to keep him, but that a solution to some extent must have been reached.

Three-year deals a rarity

Only three players have signed three year deals in Wood, Joe Root, Harry Brook. For Root, who’s franchise commitments remain minimal, that decision makes sense. At 24, Brook’s deal also isn’t unsurprising given the potential international achievements he could go onto register. But, that no other player was either offered or willing to accept tying themself to international cricket for three years is significant. Among those who have been offered two-year deals, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, the latter now an England captain, surely would have been good candidates to secure until 2026. Similar could be said of their T20 World Cup winning captain Jos Buttler, as well as Sam Curran and Jonny Bairstow.

Depending on who was offered or not offered a three-year deal, it potentially says players want to keep their options open in a rapidly developing landscape.