Cricket Australia (CA) Awarded Central Contracts to 7 New Players

Cricket Australia (CA) has recently announced the list of 25 players who have been handed a national contract for the 2009-10 season with 7 new players coming into the central contract. The new players awarded with central contracts are Phillip Hughes, Callum Ferguson, Graham Manou, Peter Siddle, Andrew McDonald, Marcus North and Nathan Hauritz. No doubt, all these players are talented and have the quality to become the future of Australian cricket. That is what Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors of Australia, thinks about the current breed of newcomers. Hilditch said that Cricket Australia is building the team, considering the ICC World Cup 2011 in mind.

The players who have been left out of the central contracts are Phil Jaques, Beau Casson, Ashley Noffke, Shaun Tait and Adam Voges. However, it does not mean that they have gone out of selectors’ consideration for the future series. What they need now is to perform consistently in domestic cricket in order to retain their central contract next season. To be honest, I think Australia has got some excellent talents like Phillip Hughes who has impressed everybody by the way he started off his international career. Nathan Hauritz put some hopes in Australia’s spin problem. Now, let us see if Australia can defend their Ashes title this year in England.

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Reuters