OPINION: English women to lose central two-year contracts

I should perhaps start by mentioning two things for the record:

1. I think the central contracts for English women have outlived their usefulness and should be abolished.
2. Awarding two-year contracts to players nearing the end of their careers, as the ECB did last year, was difficult to justify.

Nevertheless, the ECB is clear Doing believe in the central contract system, and last year they issued seven two-year contracts, in addition to ten standard one-year deals. The accompanying press release included a quote from Emma Reid, member of the England Women’s Player Partnership Management Board, who said:

“EWPP and the PCA are hugely encouraged by the progress of standards within the Women’s Central Contracts, which have been achieved through strong collaboration between the ECB and player representatives. It is positive to see multi-year agreements.“ [Emphasis mine.]

In fact, just a few weeks ago the ECB reiterated its commitment to the principle of two-year contracts by handing out fourteen of them to the men.

So it was a bit of a surprise when this year’s contracts were announced to see that the two-year deals awarded to Amy Jones, Heather Knight, etc. have not been extended, and have now de facto become one-year deals again. (The press release is a bit vague, but we’ve received confirmation that none of the two-year deals have been rolled over and everyone’s contracts now expire in October 2026.)

So one minute, two year deals are encouraging, positive progress, not to mention they get thrown around like confetti for the guys; the next they are literally last year’s news.

I wonder what’s changed… and I suspect players like Lauren Bell and Sophie Ecclestone have too!