In an effort to prevent franchise clubs from snatching up England’s top cricketers, the England Cricket Board has proposed three-year contracts for the top players to keep their services available in International Cricket. ECB is trying to keep their players in control of play for the country, as they considering offering multi-year contracts as well as raising match fees for the games.
The English Cricket Board is wary of the fact that many players may potentially move towards the global leagues as that can give them huge financial stability as the demand for the top quality players to play franchise cricket is very high.
According to the reports in Espncricinfo, The contracts offered by ECB at present will replace the previous central contract system, which only included one-year contracts, and are being offered at a time when IPL ownership has expanded to other T20 tournaments around the world, allowing teams to hire players exclusively for their needs throughout the year.
It was reported that a total of 26 contracts would be offered by ECB of which Twenty of the 26 are multi-year contracts, with elite players including Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, and Mark Wood receiving three-year contracts.
Jonny Bairstow is set to receive two-year contracts that were offered. For those not competing on the franchise circuit, like Jack Leach, and James Anderson, one-year deals are on the table. while youngsters Young quicks like Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson are expected to sign multi-year contracts.
“It’s certainly not negative, it kind of gives you a bit of security, The security of players wanting to keep playing for England is perfect. For me the main thing is walking out and representing my country, it’s not really a contract but that’s a bonus,” Ben Duckett was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
The decision to accept the contracts will now be made by the England players. Although the fundamental compensation has been agreed upon, those who have been given many years may choose to only sign 12-month contracts in order to have more flexibility.
Few of the England players are expected to sign the contracts offered by the IPL franchises shortly as it would involve a huge amount of money and it also said that the players in the end phase of their career would accept the offer by T20 teams.
Earlier it was reported that England players were being offered multi-million-pound to play leagues including the IPL franchises throughout the year, with a condition to retire from International cricket and it was also said that six English players were offered huge contracts to play for IPL franchises in the global leagues, taking retirement from England Cricket Board (ECB).
