The ECB has confirmed to CRICKETher that despite England’s recent drubbing by Australia in the Ashes series, all of the current 18 professional contracts – which were due to expire in October – have been extended by 3 months.
When the contracts were originally announced in May last year, they were scheduled to run until October 2015. However, in order to bring them into line with the ECB’s financial year, the end-date has now been pushed back until the end of January 2016.
Players will be informed of any change to their status by the beginning of November, allowing them 3 months to prepare for the consequences, which in some cases could be calamitous. Unlike the men, there is really no option for the women to “parachute” back into county cricket; and although next year’s Women’s Cricket Super League will pay match fees, they won’t by any stretch of the imagination be a “living wage”.
The formal player performance review process is therefore set to be completed over the next few weeks, with the players being informed of their fate towards the end of October and official announcements forthcoming thereafter.
Will there be any changes?
Two contracted players – Tammy Beaumont and Tash Farrant – played no part whatsoever in this summer’s Women’s Ashes. 19-year-old Farrant, though, is clearly seen as “one for the future”, whilst Tammy Beaumont has had an increasing role in mentoring younger players, both as Academy captain and in a coaching role with the age-group “development” squads; so the likelihood has to be that both will be retained.
However, the ECB has always made it clear that 18 isn’t a magic number, so there could well be additions to the squad. The most obvious candidate is Fran Wilson, who has had a very good domestic season for Middlesex and was selected for (but didn’t actually play in) the Ashes Test.
CRICKETher 
This does not have the long term implications it should.
I have no doubt that the current squad give or take a couple of players will have to go to SA but these players will have a contract giving them another year of security that for few is hard to justify (apart from what goes on in the Academy bubble).
The new contracts should be dished out after the SA Tour.
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I wonder if this is a subtle indication that the management aren’t going to have a harsh reaction to the recent failures? The longer they leave the decision of whether to “sack” any players, the less the Ashes loss stings, and the more the calls for “heads to roll”, as it were, will fade.
In some senses it is reasonable to wait a bit longer, but I would still like to see a more frequent refreshing of the contracts going forward. Personally I wouldn’t mind if they kept all the current players on, although in that case I’d like at least 3-5 new contracts as well. I’d like to see Wilson, E. Jones / Luff and Hartley come in at a minimum. If that means getting rid of someone else…well needs must.
Whether they can do all this amidst all the recent criticism, and lots of idiots calling for reduced funding, who may or (hopefully) may not have any influence, I don’t know. It’s up to the ECB at the end of the day. They won’t be blowing their massive budget on women’s cricket, I think we can safely assume that.
I’m surprised you didn’t have a little guess on who you thought was closest to leaving though Syd, what with all your insider knowledge!! A big disappointment 😉
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