Central Contracts - Should We Abolish Them?

[evertonfan]

I was listening to Geoff Boycott on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra this morning and he raised an interesting point about Central Contracts. He said thaty England players are taking comfort in the fact that they have a contract and aren't delivering the goods because they are resting on their lawells.(Don't know how it's spelt sorry)
He also went on to say that this could be why players like Harmison is constantly out of form because he never gets the chance to play for his county to try and get some overs under his belt and prove his bowling. I'm with GB on this debate because I think that players should be able to play for their county whenever they want to and not whenever the coach wants them to. Not only would it benefit the players to be turning out for their counties more often, but it's almost certain to improve revenue and attendances at county matches.

 

[Jaztheman]

i think you should Keep them but allow more leniancy towards players appearing for counties because we need like harmison to gain confidence and get some wickets under his belt for his county aswell as the players that get called up but don't play, they should be allowed to play for their couties as well.

 

[puddleduck]

I think you have to keep them, part of the reason for our vastly improved fortunes in the cricketing world since the disastrous early to mid 90's has been the introduction of central contracts. What does need changing however is the selection methods, a panel that has no alterior motives for picking the contracted players must be in use on both home and away tours.

 

[evertonfan]

Your bang on right with the selection panel Puddle, if we had a touring selection team then we can rule out 'favouritism' selections.

 

[irottev]

All this chat about England not performing is quite irritating. Can no one accept that the Australians were a better team and even England at their best wouldn't be able to beat them.

 

[evertonfan]

This has nothing to do with our hammering, it's been an issue on my mind for a while and Boycott's words this morning provoked me. Players should be playing for their counties more.

 

[Sureshot]

All this chat about England not performing is quite irritating. Can no one accept that the Australians were a better team and even England at their best wouldn't be able to beat them.

I can, still an interesting topic though.

I know Hussain backs them, I wonder what the more experienced members of PC think.

 

[evertonfan]

That was my intention SS. The fact that this thread was created during our Ashes disaster is mere coincidence I tell you. I really do want players turning out for their counties more; It's for the good of the game.

 

[Sureshot]

Definitely, the only cricket Hoggy seems to get are the Tests and the odd 4 day game for Yorks.

It showed at times during the summer, as for Harmison :blowsraspberry:

Certainly more noticable with bowlers than batsman.

 

[evertonfan]

The thing is though, I often hear excuses such as, "But he might get injured if he plays for Lancashire". He has the same likelyhood of getting injured for England as he does playing for his county.

 

[sohum]

The thing is though, I often hear excuses such as, "But he might get injured if he plays for Lancashire". He has the same likelyhood of getting injured for England as he does playing for his county.

Probably more, too, since international cricket is significantly faster and more stressful than country cricket, I would presume.

 

[aussie1st]

Would Harmy have wanted to play for his county team though? I remember the commentators saying he doesn't really like training too much and would prefer watching his football team playing.

 

[evertonfan]

That's Harmison though. Most of the England players would love to play for their counties more regulary but they aren't allowed to.

 

[Kev]

I think generally central contracts are a good idea, as much as people always want to bin an out of form player, its important for a team to play as a team not a group of individuals scared that if they fail they'll miss their chance forever. I would love to see centrally contracted players turn out more often for their counties though for 2 reasons. Firstly it raises the profile of the county game and secondly its good match practice. I do understand in these times of injury prone sportsmen why they aren't released very often though.

 

[puddleduck]

All this chat about England not performing is quite irritating. Can no one accept that the Australians were a better team and even England at their best wouldn't be able to beat them.

I think you'll find most of us have accepted that Australia have been by far the better side, and even if we had played better we probably still would have lost such as been the gulf in class and the drive and determination shown by the Aussies.

What bugs us though, is that England haven't performed to anywhere near their potential. For a vast many reasons they haven't given themselves a chance in this series due to mistakes, poor decisions before and during the tour and at the end of the day should have at least drawn, possibly won, a test match or two. As I say though, just because we're looking at what's gone wrong, doesn't mean we don't also appreciate what has gone right for Australia, they have without doubt played some awesome cricket.