Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, the England Test and white-ball captains, have signed central contract extensions, while Jamie Smith and Shoaib Bashir have been rewarded for their international breakthroughs with their first deals.
White-ball batters Will Jacks and Phil Salt have also secured central contracts for the first time, but seamer Ollie Robinson and wicketkeeper Ben Foakes miss out after being dropped from the Test side earlier this year.
Stokes notably signed only a one-year deal when the England and Wales Cricket Board moved to multi-year contracts for the first time 12 months ago, but has now penned a two-year extension that runs beyond next winter’s Ashes series.
Buttler still had a year left to run on his existing deal but has agreed a further year’s extension, meaning his commitment is confirmed through to the next T20 World Cup in 2026 as Brendon McCullum prepares to lead the white-ball side’s regeneration from the start of the New Year.
Surrey’s Smith, who has made a sensational start to his Test career since being called up as wicketkeeper at the start of the home summer, has been handed a two-year contract, evidence of his value across formats.
Bashir, meanwhile, was a shock selection for last winter’s tour of India but has since been promoted to be England’s first-choice spinner and gets a one-year deal.
Jacks was considered among the most unfortunate to miss out on a central contract this time last year and both he and Salt have since become regulars in both white-ball formats.
That pair get one-year contracts, as do bowlers Jack Leach and Reece Topley – whose deals were due to expire – while Gus Atkinson, another of the breakout stars of the Test summer, has extended his existing contract through to 2026.
Joe Root, Harry Brook and Mark Wood still have two years left on the contracts they signed last year, while a host of other key players in both Test and white-ball formats – including the likes of Jofra Archer, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Chris Woakes – are halfway through two-year deals. Jonny Bairstow is in the same boat, despite not having played international cricket since the T20 World Cup in June.
In all, 29 players have been handed some form of central contract, the same number as last year.
Moeen Ali, James Anderson and Dawid Malan have all retired from international cricket since the last round of contracts was issued, but both Foakes and Robinson remain available and have been axed from the list having fallen out of the Test set-up since last winter’s India tour.
Josh Hull, who made his Test debut against Sri Lanka at the Oval this summer, and Jacob Bethell, who has just been named in the squad for the upcoming New Zealand tour, are on developmental contracts, as is seamer John Turner, for the second year in a row.
There are few surprises but perhaps the most notable omission is Essex batter Jordan Cox, who made his T20I debut against Australia last month, is in the ODI side in the West Indies at present and will keep wicket on the Test tour of New Zealand while Smith is on paternity leave.
The full contract list is below. Note that contract lengths refer to the number of years left to run from now, rather than at the point of signing.
England Two-Year Central Contracts
Gus Atkinson (Surrey)
Harry Brook (Yorkshire)
Jos Buttler (Lancashire)
Joe Root (Yorkshire)
Jamie Smith (Surrey)
Ben Stokes (Durham)
Mark Wood (Durham)
England One-Year Central Contracts
Rehan Ahmed (Leicestershire)
Jofra Archer (Sussex)
Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire)
Shoaib Bashir (Somerset)
Brydon Carse (Durham)
Zak Crawley (Kent)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire)
Will Jacks (Surrey)
Jack Leach (Somerset)
Liam Livingstone (Lancashire)
Ollie Pope (Surrey)
Matthew Potts (Durham)
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
Phil Salt (Lancashire)
Olly Stone (Nottinghamshire)
Josh Tongue (Nottinghamshire)
Reece Topley (Surrey)
Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)
England Development contracts
Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire)
Josh Hull (Leicestershire)
John Turner (Hampshire)
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