Bethell awarded two-year Central Contract

Jacob Bethell has been awarded a two-year Central Contract, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have confirmed, after they announced their updated Central Contract list and coaching structure for England Men’s international cricket.

2026-10-12T14:55+01:00

Warwickshire’s Bethell, who struck a memorable maiden Test hundred in the 2025/26 Ashes Series in Australia, is one of 11 players with a two-year contract, with 29 players awarded one-year contracts.

Birmingham Phoenix players, Rehan Ahmed and Saqib Mahmood, have been awarded one-year contracts.

A further nine players have been awarded England Development contracts for 2026/27. The 2025/26 list included a total of 30 contracted players.

England Men Centrally Contracted Players

Joe Root* (Yorkshire)

Harry Brook* (Yorkshire)

Rehan Ahmed (Leicestershire)

Jofra Archer* (Sussex)

Gus Atkinson* (Surrey)

Sonny Baker* (Hampshire)

Tom Banton (Somerset)

Shoaib Bashir (Derbyshire)

Jacob Bethell* (Warwickshire)

Jos Buttler (Lancashire)

Brydon Carse (Durham)

Sam Cook (Essex)

Jordan Cox* (Essex)

Henry Crocombe* (Sussex/Surrey)

Sam Curran* (Surrey)

Liam Dawson (Hampshire)

Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire)

Emilio Gay (Durham)

Matthew Fisher (Surrey)

Will Jacks* (Surrey)

Dan Lawrence (Surrey)

Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire)

Jamie Overton (Surrey)

Ollie Pope (Surrey)

Matthew Potts (Durham)

Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)

Ollie Robinson (Sussex)

Phil Salt (Lancashire)

Jamie Smith (Surrey)

Josh Tongue* (Nottinghamshire)

*Denotes two-year deal through until 30 September 2028

England Men Development Contracted Players 2026–27

James Coles (Sussex)

Mason Crane (Glamorgan)

Josh Hull (Leicestershire)

Eddie Jack (Hampshire)

Ben McKinney (Durham)

Liam Patterson-White (Nottinghamshire)

Thomas Rew (Somerset)

Matthew Revis (Yorkshire)

Mitch Stanley (Lancashire)

In a sign of the growing depth of England Men’s cricket, the 39-strong list includes eight players who have agreed Central Contracts, who did not have such a deal for 2025/26, while six players have signed an England Development contract for the first time.

Tom Banton, Sam Cook, Jordan Cox, Henry Crocombe, Emilio Gay, Matt Fisher and Dan Lawrence have signed Central Contracts for the first time while Ollie Robinson returns to the list having previously been awarded a Central Contract in 2022 and 2023. Fisher has previously held an England Development Contract (2023) and a Pace Bowling Contract (2022).

Sonny Baker is upgraded to a two-year contract while Cox and Crocombe’s first Central Contracts are also for two years. There are a total of 11 players on two-year contracts.

James Coles, Mason Crane, Ben McKinney, Liam Patterson-White, Thomas Rew and Matthew Revis have signed their first England Development contracts. Crane earns his contract in the same week he is to join up with an England squad for the first time in over eight years, while Rew, who captained the Young Lions to the ICC Men’s U19s World Cup final earlier this year, is the youngest player on the list aged 18.

The system, which covers both red-ball and white-ball cricket, takes into account the likelihood of players featuring in England teams across formats during the next period, while also recognising performances over the past year.

The National Lead Coaching Structure and coaching staff for the England Men Test and white-ball teams have also been confirmed.

Two newly-created National Lead coaching roles sees Mike Yardy appointed as Elite National Batting Lead, while Richard Dawson has agreed to undertake the Elite National Spin Bowling Lead role. Troy Cooley began as Elite National Pace Bowling Lead earlier this year.

England Men’s Test Head Coach, Stephen Fleming, will be supported by a coaching staff including Dawson, Marcus Trescothick, James Foster and Eric Simons.

England Men’s white-ball Head Coach, Brendon McCullum’s coaching team will include Sarah Taylor, Jeetan Patel, Tim Southee and Kevin Pietersen in his specialist mentor role.

The coaching staff will be in place from the upcoming tours of South Africa (Test) and Australia (white-ball) respectively.