Central contracts in Test cricket: a model of best practice?

Across the last two decades, management of international cricket players has changed substantially, with the main Test playing nations using central contracts to guide their team selection. Increased management control over player workload has been a key focus of this. This paper aims to analyse selection in relation to performance for eight Test playing nations in 1,135 matches over thirty years (1985-2015), particularly in relation to the introduction of central contracts. The results demonstrated a relationship between selection stability (i.e. changes made) and performance (overall results and win ratio). The improvement was more pronounced immediately following the introduction of a contract system, as the competitive advantage appears to be at its highest in the two years following their introduction. The data presented argues that the implementation of central contracts as a best practice model has been a beneficial addition to nations' performance in Test matches. Despite this, team managers, coaches and selectors should focus their work on developing an organisational culture where the elite environment has long term stability as its focus. This is particularly pertinent as selection uncertainty can be a de-stabilising factor, as suggested in this paper and in previous research.