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Struggling Roy to miss out on central contract

Opener pays price for slump alongside Burns and Malan Foakes rewarded for playing a key role in England revival

By Will Macpherson CRICKET NEWS CORRESPONDENT

Ben Foakes is set to be among the big winners when the England men’s contracts for next year are revealed this week, but Jason Roy is in line to drop from a full deal to an increment contract.

Foakes has been England’s firstchoice wicketkeeper since the start of the tour of West Indies in March, scoring his second Test century against South Africa in August, and the 29-year-old has been rewarded with a full contract.

Among those to lose their central contract are Eoin Morgan, the whiteball captain who retired in June, and Rory Burns, who has not played since the final Test of a frustrating Ashes series in January. He has since led Surrey to a second County Championship title as captain.

Roy, who was dropped from the Twenty20 squad for this month’s World Cup, will be handed an increment contract, as will Dawid Malan, who was in the Test side a year ago but was also dropped after the Ashes. While Roy is in contention

for the 50-over team, Malan – who, like Joe Root, recently signed a new contract with Yorkshire – is firstchoice only in the T20 format.

After announcing Roy’s absence from the T20 side, managing director Rob Key said he expected the opener to remain a key part of the one-day set-up (England believe that is his strongest format), and he can expect to be involved in the three-match series that follows the World Cup, as well as a three-match series in South Africa in January.

Roy can have few complaints about being left out of the T20 side, having made just 78 runs in six international innings this summer.

England are cautiously optimistic that the South Africa series could mark Jofra Archer’s return to international cricket for the first time in almost two years. He is back bowling after a stress fracture of the elbow, and then a stress fracture of the back, and will join the Test squad on a camp in Abu Dhabi next month. He will not, though, be ready for the three-test tour of Pakistan in December.

Last year, there were 20 full contracts and just four increment deals, but the latter appears likely to rise, with Harry Brook and Matty Potts in line to be signed up.

Also on the rise are the England and Wales Cricket Board’s fastbowling contracts, which gives it greater control of rare assets. There were three last year, but at least six are set to be awarded this time, with the Overton brothers, Craig and Jamie (who made his Test debut this year), Saqib Mahmood, Olly Stone, Matt Fisher (who recently recovered from a stress fracture) and Brydon Carse all receiving one.

Full deals mean the players’ pay is taken from the counties to the ECB, while increment deals act as a “topup” of a county contract. A year ago, England announced a new structure for their men’s contracts, in which 20 players were handed deals with no public distinction between the red and white-ball formats. Since 2016, the deals had been split between red and white-ball, with some players holding both.

Through the high-performance review, the ECB has suggested that contracts could change once more, with multi-year deals. It is also possible that white-ball contracts will be downgraded to reflect a changing landscape in the T20 game that would involve players being rewarded more in match and tour fees rather than annual contracts.

For now, though, last year’s system remains in place.

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2022-10-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

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Daily Telegraph