Slightly strange system: England batter Dawid Malan on ECB's central contracts
Oct 13, 2022
London [UK], October 13 : After being downgraded to an incremental deal, England batter Dawid Malan called the England Cricket Board's procedure for granting central contracts "a slightly strange system."
Malan lost his spot in the Test team after England's 4-0 loss in the Ashes in Australia, despite having a full central contract for the period of October 2021-September 2022.
He has been moved to an incremental contract as a result, which means that the ECB will supplement his recently renewed Yorkshire contract rather than serving as his principal employer, for the period of October 2022 to September 2023.
"There's obviously a slightly strange system with the contracting system," ESPNcricinfo quoted Malan as saying.
The English batter expressed doubt about the contract system's concentration on Test cricket and said that being released from his contract could put him in "difficult positions" later in the winter.
"Hopefully, white-ball cricket can get recognised as Test-match cricket does," the England batter said.
"It seems heavily led towards red-ball cricket when you have players that play one or two formats of the white-ball game. They are decisions that I don't make but ultimately, it puts you in tough situations if you're not contracted and you're losing finances playing in tournaments in the winter," Malan said.
"As players, we'd like to be rewarded for our performances for England. You'd guess that's what contracts are for" said Malan who wants more credit for white-ball cricket.
Malan suggested that a full central contract would have been appropriate as recognition for his own consistent achievement in that format.
"Hopefully, white-ball cricket can get recognised as Test-match cricket does. You have players here who have been leading wicket-takers for England that don't have a contract, but those are decisions that I don't make. Keys and I have had that chat already," he said.
"As players, we'd like to be rewarded for our performances for England. You'd guess that's what contracts are for; and if you're ranked top five in the world for three years, you'd hope you'd get recognised with a white-ball contract, but that's just how it works. It's still an honour to play for England, and you want to play and win as many games as you can for England," he further added.
