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The Ashes: Central contracts — secret of England's journey from also-rans to champs

A team of researchers from Sheffield Hallam University attributes its national side's phenomenal success to England and Wales Cricket Board's foresightedness.

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Leaks can be a pain. Alastair Cook & Co will agree.

In spite of annihilating the Aussies during the course of a third successive Ashes win, the England team has become the butt of all jokes. The childish behaviour of a few players has overshadowed, almost trivialised, the team’s 3-0 victory.

Let’s look at the bigger picture, though. You can’t deny the fact that England have been among the most feared and dominant forces in world cricket over the last few years. Ever wondered what’s resulted in their transformation from also-rans to champions?

A research conducted by the Sheffield Hallam University’s Sports Industry Research Centre (SIRC) seeks to answer this question. According to the paper, England’s rise to the top has a lot to do with the England and Wales Cricket Board’s  (ECB) central contracts system introduced in 2000. The study says it brought stability and improved the performances of the cricketers.

SIRC staff Steve Bullough, who works on sport economics, sports participation and analysis of elite sport, led a team of a researchers and analysed England’s performance in the last 26-year period and found out that England’s performance has gone northward in the last decade or so.

Only 12 to 13 cricketers are offered central contracts. This effectively means the elite crop of players needs to play minimal county cricket. Instead, they get time to work with the best of coaches and prepare for international commitments.

They also get all the benefits of an elite sport environment, giving them access
to the best sports science, nutrition, conditioning and psychological support.
The SIRC research team interviewed current and former players, coaches and cricket officials on how central contracts have changed the face of English cricket.

The researchers found that between 1987 and 1999, England made 368 changes to their Test side, winning just 20 per cent (26 matches out of 130) of these fixtures. On the contrary, the period between 2000 and 2012 saw them make fewer changes (263) over 166 Tests. And England’s win percentage was 45. The central contracts system has helped players get longer breaks between games. It has also reduced their county cricket workload.

The research also found that, between 1987 and 1989, the selectors made four changes after every match (on an average). But since 2003, there have been fewer than 1.5 changes per match. This stability in the selection process also marked improvement in results, despite occasional lapses such as the Ashes whitewash of 2006-07.

“Central contracts have made the selectors really focus on who they think should be in the England team, and then stick with them given that the financial ‘burden’ to pay contracted players falls on the ECB. Historically, the team may have had four or five core players and the rest were very much in and out of the Test side,” said Bullough.

Now onto some T20. The sudden rise in the number of leagues the world over has left the researchers worried. The paper found a potential threat to the system as players are happy playing the shortest format of the game most of the time.

“The T20 format, particularly the Indian Premier League along with the other international T20 tournaments, has significant financial benefits for players but this is less likely to impact on England’s Test match players in the short-term, as the IPL clashes with the start of the English domestic season and the ECB have plans in place to manage this,” Bullough added.

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