England stars left dismayed by ECB

ENGLAND cricketers have been left confused, dismayed and out of pocket by the ECB’s controversial decision to ditch the points system used to award incremental contracts. Under previous guidelines, those

BACK PAGE overlooked for central contracts but on the periphery of full England teams would automatically qualify for a £50,000 top-up to their match and tour fees once they had hit a 20-point target. Five points were awarded for a Test match appearance and two for either an ODI or Twenty20 cap.

However, the ECB are now advising that the merit-based qualification has been scrapped for a return to awarding incremental deals at their discretion, on the recommendation of England team director Andrew Strauss.

So far, since the new annual contracts came into force on October 1, Dawid Malan, Mark Stoneman, James Vince and Tom Curran would have earned enough points had the old criteria been applied.

Yet seamer Toby Roland-Jones (right) — who missed the Ashes due to a stress fracture of his back— is the only one to be given an incremental award.

The issue is a major topic between England players, not least because it is alleged they were not told changes were afoot. Nor have they been made public.

Indeed, the Mail On Sunday can reveal that three agents with players in New Zealand claimed no prior knowledge of plans to change the system until this past month. Some fear that awarding such contracts on an arbitrary basis will lead to some players feeling unbacked or short-term selections, affecting their performance. It appears that the introduction of white-ball contracts 18 months ago may have exhausted the ECB’s budget for player salaries.