England confirm central contracts for 2020-21 but financial terms yet to be agreed

Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Dom Sibley earn red-ball deals while Tom Curran is added to the limited-overs list.

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England players have yet to agree to terms on the new batch of central contracts awarded for the 2020-21 cycle.

The ECB have announced which players have been awarded 12 Test and a dozen white-ball deals for the next period.

But the financial aspects of the contracts have yet to be finalised. The Team England Player Partnership group remain locked in talks with the ECB regarding the remuneration package.

Renewal of the deals comes after the ECB, who believe as much as £200m has been lost from the sport as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, confirmed they will cut 62 jobs as part of a 20 per cent reduction to their workforce budget.

Chris Woakes, who has a multi-format deal for 2020-21, admitted England players could not be exempt from the batch of cuts.

At the start of the summer, England players donated a combined £500,000 to their employers and selected charities. 

As for the contracts themselves, Jonny Bairstow has been removed from the red-ball list, while Joe Denly has lost his white-ball deal from 2019-20.

Zak Crawley, Dom Sibley and Ollie Pope have all been handed Test deals after establishing themselves in the side. Mark Wood, who remains on white-ball terms, is not part of the red-ball group after playing just one summer Test.

England cricket central contracts: What is an increment contract? Who has a central contract?

World Cup winner Tom Curran is the only new face in the white-ball group after his deal was upgraded from an incremental contract.

But Sam Billings, who averaged 51.14 in 10 white-ball matches this summer, has been overlooked alongside Tom Banton and David Willey.

Those incremental deals, which are awarded for the same 12 month period but do not give the ECB complete control of their availability, have also been announced

Jack Leach remains on those terms and is joined by fellow-spinner Dom Bess, as well as Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan.

Last January, the ECB distributed fast-bowling contracts to Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton and Olly Stone and the trio have retained those deals.

The contracts, which are awarded based on a ranking system which takes into account on-field performances, contributions away from the middle, fielding and fitness, come into force from October 1, 2020 and run for the next 12 months.

Test and white-ball: Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes

Test only: James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Sam Curran, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley

White-ball only: Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Curran, Eoin Morgan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Mark Wood

Increment contracts: Dom Bess, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Jack Leach

Pace-bowling contracts: Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Olly Stone

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