Ashes Preperations could be Disrupted

Dave Kidd has reported in today's People Newspaper, that the ECB's preparation plans for next summer's Ashes series could be thrown into turmoil due to England players refusing to sign their central contracts.

Apparently the England players elected not to sign the contracts until after the Stanford match (and we all know how that went). The England players feel miffed that they lost their £650,000 per man match and subsequently came away from the West Indies with nothing.

The centrally-contracted players feel that they are missing out on some big money that is on offer from the IPL (Indian Premier League). Of course the ECB did try and replace the lure of the IPL with the Stanford match, however, as was proven; if a team loses that one-off match the players walk away with nothing, compared with the guaranteed income/wages on offer from IPL franchises.

The ECB have only made the contracted players available to the IPL for twelve days next spring.

That decision by the ECB has led IPL franchise owners to insist that they will not be employing any centrally-contracted England players next season.

This in house fighting could seriously disrupt the England teams preparations for next summer's ashes series. Let's hope the players and the ECB can sort something out and reach an agreement.