And the winner of a 2009 Central Contract is…
It’s Central Contract Awards time, and the big “news” is that Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar have missed out altogether. Actually, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise – Harmison has been quoted as saying that he is unsure whether he will tour South Africa this winter and definitely won’t tour Australia the following winter. Panesar’s fall from grace seems to be complete – Adil Rashid has an incremental contract and must be favourite to travel as the 2nd spinner this winter. Between them they only played 3 Tests this summer.
The XI awarded full contracts might be an indicator as to who will start against South Africa:
- Andrew Strauss
- Alastair Cook
- Ian Bell
- Kevin Pietersen
- Paul Collingwood
- Matt Prior
- Stuart Broad
- Graeme Swann
- James Anderson
- Ryan Sidebottom
- Graham Onions
On the other hand, it probably doesn’t – it is hard to envision Jonathan Trott being left out after his debut, where he apparantly scored an Ashes-winning century or something. He also gains an incremental contract.
Sidebottom is possibly a surprise – no Test appearances this summer, although he has played in limited overs matches including the World Twenty20.
In addition to Rashid & Trott, incremental contracts were awarded to Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Flintoff, Owais Shah & Owais Shah.
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