ENGLAND wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow has lost his Test central contract for the coming year, but Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley have been added to the red-ball retainer list.
The news will sting Bairstow’s wallet and ego but it is not an unexpected move by the England and Wales Cricket Board. He has played just one of the last 12 Test matches since the 2019 summer’s Ashes.
Instead the World Cup winner has been handed a specialist limited-overs deal, with Pope, Crawley and Sibley all promoted after breakthroughs over the past year.
Fast bowler Mark Wood has also been named in the white-ball only list.
On the 2019/2020 terms, red-ball deals were understood to be worth around £650,000 before bonuses, with white-ball contracts coming in at around £275,000, but the hefty financial impact of Covid-19 means there is uncertainty over this year’s payments.
The ECB estimates the pandemic has already cost the game £100million, with further losses likely, and is currently undergoing a round of redundancies. With that in mind, talks over payment at the top end are likely to be tricky.
Dom Bess, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan and Jack Leach will have ‘increment’ contracts, which top up their county pay.
Three pace bowlers, Olly Stone, Saqib Mahmood and Craig Overton, will be on developmental deals.
England contracts for 2020/21:
Test and white-ball: Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.
Test only: James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Sam Curran.
White-ball only: Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Curran, Eoin Morgan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Mark Wood.
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