Central contracts: Rewarded

'Central contracts are designed to reward players who perform well consistently for England' - Geoff Miller, National Selector.

Spot the difference:

Ian Bell's centrally contracted year in full:

vs India: 49 runs at 16.33

vs West Indies: 32 runs at 16.00

vs Australia: 140 runs at 28.00

2009 stat attack: 

172 runs at 24.57 [0 x 100, 2 x 50]

IR Bell: full contract.

Ravi Bopara's centrally contracted year in full:

vs West Indies [a]: 104 runs at 104.00

vs West Indies [h]: 251 runs at 125.50

vs Australia: 105 runs at 15.00

2009 stat attack:

460 runs at 46.00 [3x100, 0x 50]

RS Bopara: Incremental contract

Quote of the day:

'England have invested a lot in Ian Bell*. He's played 49 Test matches, he's got a lot of experience, he's still relatively young. I hope he's still got a lot to offer English cricket in the future, but only he can determine how well he does'. - Andy Flower, England coach

* Yeah, a lot of money.

Consistent [ii]

Given the stasis in England's Test match batting order, here's a stat to toy with: Bopara and Denly were England's thirteenth opening partnership in T20 cricket. England have only played 22 T20 matches. As they both got nought on Sunday, how long before number fourteen comes along?

More consistency: England have played Ireland three times in ODIs, in 2006, 2007 and last week. Here are the teams:

2006

Trescothick

Joyce

Strauss

Collingwood

Bell

Dalrymple

Jones

Chapple

Plunkett

Mahmood

Harmison

2007

Joyce

Vaughan

Bell

Pietersen

Collingwood

Flintoff

Nixon

Bopara

Mahmood

Anderson

Panesar

2009

Bopara

Denly

Trott

Prior

Collingwood

Shah

Wright

Rashid

Swann

Bresnan

Sidebottom

Number of players who appeared in all three games: one. Number of opening batsmen: five. Number of wicketkeepers: three. Number of years between fixtures: three.

NB: England have one tactic right: pick Ireland's best player and then let him disappear. 

Update: Thanks to Rob for pointing out Bopara got one on Sunday - should keep him in the team for today at least. The times today has a good piece on the awarding of central contracts, currently bringing IR Bell and Monty out in fear-sweats. The current list of incremental contract holders has a couple of half-remembered names too: Tim Ambrose and Samit Patel. Don't wait by the phone, boys...

Punter punts

Two things that that we outsiders always took as planks of Australian cricket:

i) Pick the team then pick the captain

ii) Let the opposition worry about you

Ricky Ponting after the Test at the Gabba: 'I just think we've got to be a bit more flexible in our selection in different places. We need to look at every way we can to have the most impact. They're some of the lessons we all learned in India. We could have been better equipped for those conditions and if we come up against conditions like that, in Australia or the world*, we need to have guys who can play in them'.

What a very English argument.

Ricky Ponting's average in 2008 - 43.55. From India onwards - 31.88. What a very English average. Don't talk yourself out of a job, pal.

* Australia is actually part of the world, even though it doesn't seem like it sometimes.

Extended run

England had to do something, and so they have. Ravi Bopara will open in Kanpur, according to the always excellent David Hopps. Matt Prior drops to number eight, eight games into his comeback. His run at the top of the order included one game against Scotland, one where he was required to chase the almost insurmountable South African total of 83 and one in which he did not bat due to rain. Of the eight games, England lost two. 

Stats lie, of course. He was paralysed by spin on monday. Bopara has been bullish in asking for his chance. It will be interesting to see how extended his run is under KP.

A chilling reminder of prior (no pun intended) consistency. Ravi Bopara made his ODI debut on 2 Feb 2007 in Sydney. The XI:

Joyce

Loye

Bell

Flintoff

Strauss

Dalrymple

Nixon

Bopara

Plunkett

Mahmood

Panesar

Pietersen had gone home injured. To continue the Spinal Tap theme of the post below, many of the others are of course current residents of the Where Are They Now File.