Note: As I suggested yesterday the ECB have the funds to fight England players going off to the T20 leagues. RH

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2022/09/08/england-plan-multi-year-contracts-see-t20-league-threat/

England plan multi-year contracts to see off T20 league threat
International cricket is facing major pressure from T20 leagues, with two new major tournaments launching in January

By
Tim Wigmore
8 September 2022 • 3:57pm
England plan multi-year contracts to see off T20 league threat
Liam Livingstone is one of England's leading white-ball talents CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
England will consider multi-year contracts to prevent players from being lost to international cricket, and encourage players to resist the lure of short-format leagues, according to new England & Wales Cricket Board chairman Richard Thompson.

International cricket is facing major pressure from T20 leagues. Two major T20 tournaments, in South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, launch in January, adding to an already congested field. New Zealand star Trent Boult recently withdrew from his national central contract to have more time to play in domestic competitions, highlighting the threat to the international game.

Thompson suggested that England could start to offer players multi-year deals as a way to ward against talent being lost from the national team.

“We’ve got to guard against it,” Thompson said. “And that involves a lot more thinking than we are doing at the moment.. We’ve got to find ways the schedule, the financial commitments, other areas where it’s not all about money, security – that we can provide them.

“If you’re going from one league to another and you get injured, you’re done. But if a country can say 'here’s a three-year contract' – that’s very different. I do feel we are at an inflection point, a tipping point, of how we control our talent and are not losing them. So in five years’ time if we’ve lost our best talent to multiple global tournaments then that’s a tragedy.”

Thompson also said that the vote on the changes to the domestic structure, which had been scheduled for September 20, has been delayed as attempts continue to find consensus among the counties to enact the changes to the schedule advocated by the high-performance review.

Read more at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2022/09/08/england-plan-multi-year-contracts-see-t20-league-threat/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2022/09/08/england-plan-multi-year-contracts-see-t20-league-threat/

RH