England and Wales cricket board has introduced overhauled 2016-17 central contract system for players in the national team setup. ECB has introduced two categories in the central system 1). Test Contracts 2). White-Ball Contracts which will ensure players in one day and T20 squads getting improved contracts unlike the previous system.
Update: England cricket board introduced the central contracts for the international players 14 years ago and the system used to have two categories like central contract players and the increment contracts for the new players or the ones who are regular in ODI and T20 matches. But with the 2016-17 season, ECB announced that regular test players will get the traditional central contract while they also announced all new white-ball contract where T20 and ODI regular players will be handed a 12-month holding deal. Players in both test and white-ball contracts will sign a 12-month deal with ECB where their county salaries is replaced by England central contract salary.
ECB’s new contract will run through October 2016 to September 2017. 11 players are included in the central contracts while 8 players are given “increment contracts”.
Mark Wood and Eoin Morgan has been included in the central contract while Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan and Gary Ballance has been demoted to Increment category. Below is the list of current central and increment contracted players.
| Player | Retainer Fee | Test Fee | ODI Fee | T20 FEE |
| Alastair Cook | £700,000 + captain bonus | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Jonny Bairstow | £700,000 | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Joe Root | £700,000 | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Ben Stokes | £700,000 | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Mark Wood | £700,000 | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Moeen Ali | £700,000 | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Stuart Broad | £700,000 | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Steven Finn | £700,000 | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Chris Woakes | £700,000 | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Jimmy Anderson | £700,000 | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Player | Retainer Fee | Test Fee | ODI Fee | T20 FEE |
| Moeen Ali | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Jos Buttler | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Alex Hales | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Eoin Morgan | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Liam Plunkett | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Joe Root | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Jason Roy | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Adil Rashid | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Ben Stokes | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| Chris Woakes | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
| David Willey | County Salary | £12,000 | £5,000 | £2,500 |
How The England Central Contracts Works:
The system in place is pretty simple, established test players are awarded Test contracts and paid a yearly retainer fee plus the match fee which is different for all three formats. here is how it all works.
- Test contract are awarded to the players who are expected to play regularly for england in test matches.
- 12-month holding deal for every player awarded a Test contract.
- 2016-17 12 month contract is for the period of 1st October 2016 to 30 september 2017.
- England test captain’s salary in Central contract is 25% more than other players in the contract.
- The retainer fee in Test contract is £700,000 which replaces players county salary.
- players in cTest contract also get match fee which is as follow, Test Match fee £12,000, ODI match fee £5000 and T20 match fee £3500.
- There is another category called “white-ball contracts” where new comers and regular ODI and T20 players who are not well established in Test team gets 12 month deals.
- With incremental contracts players continue to get their county salaries, but ECB compensate county teams whos player miss country matches due to international duties.