Ben Stokes has kept hold of his central contract
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
England all-rounder Ben Stokes and opening batsman Alex Hales have retained their central contracts for the 2017/18 season, but pace bowler Mark Wood has lost his Test contract.
Stokes and Hales have both been suspended indefinitely after the former was arrested for getting into a brawl outside a nightclub in Bristol in the early hours of September 25.
Stokes, who was celebrating England’s win over the West Indies in the third ODI on September 24, was held overnight in police custody on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm, but he was released later in the morning.
While the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Somerset and Avon police have launched their own investigations, Stokes was still included in England’s Ashes squad and retained the Test vice-captaincy.
Hales, meanwhile, was with Stokes at the time of the incident and has been helping police with their investigation.
As for Wood, he lost out on a Test contract after a heel injury cut his summer short. The 27-year-old has been very injury prone as of late, especially in regards to an ankle issue he has had, and was subsequently left out of the Ashes squad. As a result of this, he was only given a white-ball contract.
Pace bowler Steven Finn also lost his Test contract, while fellow seamer Toby Roland-Jones has been given an incremental contract after he was ruled out of the Ashes due to a stress fracture in his lower back.
Meanwhile, fast bowler Jake Ball received a white-ball contract after taking 21 wickets in 16 ODIs at an average of 42.52.
List of centrally contracted players
Test match
Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes
ODI/T20
Moeen Ali, Jake Ball, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan, Liam Plunkett, Joe Root, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
Incremental
Toby Roland-Jones