Fletcher wins central contracts battle

Duncan Fletcher's wish for a 20-strong national cricket squad under his full control as England head coach moved ever closeryesterday when the First-Class Forum of the England and Wales Cricket Board approved a substantial expansion of the central contracts scheme.

Delegates did not go quite so far as to grant the England selectors power to award the 20 year-long contracts Fletcher would have preferred. But in agreeing to allow up to 16 players to be awarded 12-month deals – entirely funded by the ECB – they gave the green light to a significant advance on the present arrangements.

In addition to between 10 and 16 on annual contracts, which will run from 1 October, the selectors will be able to increase the squad to 20 by taking on additional players on six-month summer contracts.

Currently, 12 players are contracted for the six summer months with their county employers receiving compensation. Under the new arrangements, counties will retain registrations, but for those with 12-month England contracts, salaries, pensions and insurance costs will be funded entirely from Lord's.

Hailing the greater flexibility the new structure affords the selectors in managing England players, the ECB chief executive Tim Lamb said he was "delighted the FCF have supported the further enhancement of the central contracts system so wholeheartedly".

However, compromise had to be struck before the delegates – representing the 18 first-class counties and the MCC – approved the plan 18-1, notably over the contentious issue of "claw-back" payments.

The ECB had suggested counties pay £2,700 for a four-day match and £1,350 for a one-day game for the privilege of fielding their own players in county matches, a proposal which – not surprisingly – met with considerable opposition. But after counties threatened to reject the whole package if these payments remained, they were dropped.

"This was the sticking point," Yorkshire's chief executive Chris Hassell said. "The idea of paying to obtain the release of your own players was overwhelmingly rejected."

John Read, the ECB's director of corporate affairs, said: "The new system will cost £4.85m per year compared with £3.9m for the current one. But the counties will save £630,000 in reduced employment costs, so the net cost to English cricket is around £350,000.

"There was a plan to ask counties to pay when players were made available to them but one county demonstrated that they had spent a six-figure sum developing an England player and in recognition of that it was agreed the ECB would not claw back income from the counties in this way."

For the likes of Yorkshire and Surrey, who would have saved £60,000 in wages had the new system applied this season, that decision represents a further financial bonus.