Cricket Australia announces new central contracts for 2020-21 season; Usman Khawaja axed

Cricket Australia announced their list of centrally contracted players for men’s and women’s category for the next 12 months. They included six new faces in their contract with the likes of  Marnus Labuschagne and Joe Burns making the cut. Meanwhile, Usman Khawaja, the left-handed opener was one of the surprising exclusions among the total of seven omitted players.

Amid COVID-19, CA picked 20 men and 15 women in their contract list. They excluded many players from the contract list. In the constitution of Cricket Australia, it is well mentioned that the players included in the list holds an opportunity to come up with some astonishing performances in order to get their contracts upgraded going into the future.

CA announced new central contracts for the 2020-21 season 

CA have omitted a long list of players from their central contracts including the names of Usman Khawaja, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis and Ashton Turner, Peter Siddle(retire from all forms of cricket) . On the other hand, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Agar, Joe Burns, Kane Richardson and Matthew Wade are the names that earned their place in the contract list.

Trevor Hohns, Cricket Australia’s men’s national selector said that Mitchell Marsh and Matthew Wade proved their worth with their performances due to which they have managed to get on the chart of CA. As per him, the players that missed out on their contracts should not feel disheartened. All of them can go back and perform well in domestic cricket to earn their place once again.

He also added that sometimes the board has to make some tough calls on but it doesn’t mean the players that didn’t earn contracts cannot represent Australia. “As Mitch Marsh and Matthew Wade have proven, there are always plenty of opportunities for those who have missed out to be re-selected by performing consistently at the domestic level; and importantly to make the most of any opportunity that comes their way at the international level.

“As is always the case there are unlucky omissions but, however, because you are not on the list does not mean you cannot be selected to represent Australia,” Trevor Hohns said as quoted by Cricbuzz.

Here is the list:

CA men’s contract list: Ashton Agar, Joe Burns, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, James Pattinson, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

CA women’s contract list: Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Rachael Haynes, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Meg Lanning, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham