England Central Contracts & India and Stanford Squad announced

[DPRA]

Just been announced now:

Central contracts:

J Anderson, I Bell, S Broad, P Collingwood, A Cook, A Flintoff, S Harmison, M Panesar, K Pietersen, R Sidebottom, A Strauss and M Vaughan*

Increment contracts:

T Ambrose, R Bopara, S Patel, M Prior, O Shah, G Swann and L Wright

*Central contracts run between the period from October 1 2008 to September 30 2009 and are awarded in three different salary bands which are not disclosed publicly

England's 15-man one-day squad for Stanford Super Series and India ODI series:

Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire) capt,
James Anderson (Lancashire)
Ian Bell (Warwickshire),
Ravi Bopara (Essex),
Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire),
Paul Collingwood (Durham),
Alastair Cook (Essex),
Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire)
Stephen Harmison (Durham),
Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire),
Matt Prior (Sussex)
Owais Shah (Middlesex),
Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire),
Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire),
Luke Wright (Sussex).

 

[Will_NA]

Surprised Napier was overlooked for a player like Cook

 

[King Pietersen]

Alastair Cook in the ODi and Stanford squads, what are they doing? He's not good enough, and definitely doesn't deserve the ?500'000 payout, as he's failed to perform in ODi cricket. Apart from that it's the squad I was expecting, would have loved to have seen Joe Denly in there in his place.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Cook is good enough. Just hasn't played enough OD cricket. Would have liked to see Napier in Cooks place too but oh well.

 

[shubhrayu]

This side looks challenging for India

 

[SciD]

India will be tougher than RSA.

 

[evertonfan]

I'm not surprised Napier was overlooked. He's a flash in the pan.

 

[evertonfan]

Alastair Cook in the ODi and Stanford squads, what are they doing? He's not good enough, and definitely doesn't deserve the ?500'000 payout, as he's failed to perform in ODi cricket. Apart from that it's the squad I was expecting, would have loved to have seen Joe Denly in there in his place.

The Stanford Series has come about to give the England players a financial boost that they've been missing out on since not competing in the IPL. It's pretty obvious that the ECB want to keep it's players sweetened up so they don't want to go off and compete in the IPL.

 

[Insomniac]

Didn't one England player compete in the IPL though, although he played like 3 or 4 games only?

 

[SaiSrini]

With the current form that England are in after Pietersen's captaincy, they should pose a pretty good challenge to India in the ODI series, which will be more fun.

 

[Sureshot]

Didn't one England player compete in the IPL though, although he played like 3 or 4 games only?

Mascarenhas played one game for Rajasthan Royals.

 

[evertonfan]

Didn't one England player compete in the IPL though, although he played like 3 or 4 games only?

Yeah. He hasn't been picked for England since though. Never rated him much as an England player tbh. Bits and pieces player and was too old to really develop into anything special.

 

[deerkick]

England will win 3-2 is my guess, or 4-1

 

[shubhrayu]

India in India is a challenge

 

[JD10]

Cook has only ever hit 1 six so he is gunna go like 10 in a innnings if he opens