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Spinner Todd Murphy and pacer Lance Morris earn their first Cricket Australia central contract on the expanded 24-strong list with Ashes and ODI World Cup in mind, CA announced the 24 players to have won contracts for 2023-24.
Sean Abbott, Lance Morris, Michael Neser and Jhye Richardson have all earned contracts. Australia have a busy upcoming period ahead of them, with the World Test Championship final against India in London in June their next big assignment ahead of the battle for the Ashes against England and Cricket World Cup 2023 at the end of the year. And the make-up of Australia's 24-player contract list has been set with one eye on their upcoming fixtures, with a total of six new faces added to the contract list for the busy period of cricket. Bowling duo Murphy and Sean Abbott received upgrades during last year and have been promoted to the main list, while Michael Neser, Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, and Marcus Harris have also been promoted and offered a contract for the next year. Former white-ball captain Aaron Finch who recently retired and spinner Mitchell Swepson and Matthew Wade, Matthew Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, and Matthew Kuhnemann, who received promotions during the most recent time, were not given new contracts. Former Australia batter and current selection chair George Bailey was thrilled to see a host of players rewarded with new contracts and said the list was announced with one eye on the upcoming schedule. "There has been some outstanding individual and team performances through the past 12 months. Equally, we have been extremely impressed with the emergence of some players who are knocking on the door of Australian selection across all three formats," Bailey said in an official statement released by Cricket Australia. "Two huge challenges in the Test arena in The World Test Championship and the Ashes are on our doorstep followed soon after by the ICC One-Day World Cup. We have chosen a group of players we expect will form the majority of those two campaigns and we know that we will need a squad mentality to achieve success," he added. "As we find each year now, there is a lot of cricket in the next six to 12 months and our depth will be tested. The six Test matches during the winter are in relatively short succession and we have a busy period of white ball cricket leading up to, and post, the ODI World Cup," he added. Australia men's contract list 2023-24: Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner and Adam Zampa. (ANI)
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