England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have taken a step to neutralize the growing threat of franchise cricket. The English governing body will introduce multi-year contracts and will also increase match fees across the boards.

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England players don’t want to play in their place

The development came after a few of their key players decided against playing for England in their recently concluded white-ball series against Bangladesh. They played in turn opted to travel to Pakistan to play in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2023.

Sam Billings has been vocal about ECB contracts

Players in particular Sam Billings have been vocal about ECB contracts. He was one of the players who decided to choose PSL over international duties. He openly said that governing body needs to look into the contract system and match fees.

ECB to bring a change in their contract system

It’s fair to say that this might have prompted ECB to bring a change in their contract system. ECB chief executive Richard Gould confirmed that they will overhaul the contract system so that players choose national duties over franchise cricket. He revealed that the change in the policy will allow the director of Cricket Rob Key to hand multi-year contracts to the players and not just for one year.

We are going to end up having to take different approaches

“This is where we are going to end up having to take different approaches in the way we contract our players. Whereas there have been collective bargaining arrangements largely, those do have validity but they will have less validity as more opportunities come up in the market and players want to do other things.

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Increasing the match fees for English players

Richard Gould also spoke about the possibility of increasing the match fees for English players. He said that they will pay more money to both men and women but it’ll depend on the clashes they are part of. He explained:

Pay them more money

“We’re going to have to pay them more money. That’s probably likely to be based on appearance money rather than the central contract element because I think that gives us the most cost-effective way of dealing with any particular competitive tournament at that particular time. We’ll be looking to get the match fees up, both with the men and the women. Sometimes it’ll depend on what the games are clashing against.” He concluded.