England's cricketers will have to fight to secure central contracts after Nasser Hussain yesterday signalled a hardline approach following the disappointing tour to South Africa.
Although the number of contracts that will be on offer has not been agreed, it seems certain to be significantly fewer than the 16 suggested by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Lord MacLaurin only two weeks ago.
The budget for contracts has been slashed from Stg£1 million to £750,000 which, on a pro rata basis, suggests that around 12 will now be available.
The cost-cutting measures reflect the problems that the board is facing in attracting income. Last month Cornhill announced they are pulling out of Test cricket after 23 years.
Although the ECB's chief executive, Tim Lamb, stressed yesterday that the upper threshold of 16 contracts is still available to Hussain, it seems inconceivable that will now be achieved.
The board is also under pressure from the counties, who are concerned that under the contract system money will be handed out to too many players with no guarantees of improvement in team performance.
"If you give out contracts simply as jobs for the boys and throw them away willy nilly then they immediately become devalued," said Hussain. "I think you have to earn a contract."
The captain has already held talks with the coach, Duncan Fletcher, and Simon Pack, the ECB's international teams director, over the highly sensitive issue. Yesterday Hussain stressed that although he has his own ideas, a firm decision on numbers will not be made until the chairman of selectors, David Graveney, joins the tour in Zimbabwe next month.
"The principle of contracts is sound," Hussain said. "Rather than going off to play in various county matches and then turning up two days before a Test, getting reacquainted, asking how everyone is playing and what the fitness is like, you go off a week before a Test, you do your fitness and get the cricket right with whichever coach you want."
But Hussain said that contracts will have to be sweated for. "It would be nice to have an elite squad with a contract that has not just been thrown at them, that has been well-earned so that county players can aspire to them.
Hussain also revealed that, after another washout on the fourth day of the final Test at Centurion Park yesterday, South Africa had turned down his suggestion to play a one-day game today if conditions again make Test cricket impossible. He stressed that the idea was nothing more than an initiative to provide cricket for the paying public, and was not intended as a substitute for the Test match.
