Four new contracts awarded to England heroes

Less than 24 hours after wrapping up their historic series victory in the Caribbean, four of England's key players have been awarded six-month summer contracts by the England & Wales Cricket Board.

The new contracts, which take immediate effect, have been awarded to England's pacemen Steve Harmison, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard - who shared 47 wickets between them - as well as the veteran batsman, Graham Thorpe, who scored 274 runs in the series, including a matchwinning century in Barbados.

"Each of these players has made an outstanding contribution to England's successful tour of the Caribbean," said David Graveney, England's chairman of selectors, "and the award of contracts is richly deserved. The team now faces a busy period of international cricket this summer and all four players will have an important part to play in our plans."

The contracts system, which was introduced at the beginning of the decade, has been a vital component in England's steady improvement over the past four years. "The lads face a really heavy schedule," Graveney told BBC Radio. "We won in the West Indies as we kept our bowlers fit and we need to keep doing that.

"The game isn't flushed with money but it's a balancing act between cricketing needs and finances," added Graveney. "Harmison and James Anderson were on summer contracts last season. These give control to look after bowlers and counties get compensated for services lost by these lads."

Harmison's county, Durham, was delighted by the news. "Stephen is proving what a great bowler he is," said Martyn Moxon, the head coach. "The contract is justification for all the effort he has been putting in. The downside, for Durham, is that we are unlikely to see much of him this year."

"We are delighted that Stephen's continued excellent form has led to him being granted a central contract," added David Harker, Durham's chief executive. "The contract is the result of months of hard work following his back injury in Bangladesh and no one deserves it more than Stephen."

The four join eight other players who were awarded 12-month contracts by the ECB last September: James Anderson, Mark Butcher, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick.