Cricket Australia (CA), on Wednesday, announced the latest 17-player contract list ahead of an exciting 2023-24 season. Earlier this week, the board announced the new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under which CA women’s contracts rose from 15 to 18, with 17 players included on the 2023-24 list.
The likes of Phoebe Litchfield, Grace Harris, Kim Garth and Heather Graham all have been added to CA’s women’s contract. The list, however, could’ve been 18 players, but all-rounder Nicola Carey declined the contract offer as she aims to focus on pre-season with Tasmania.
Notably, Carey had been a staple in Australian squads since her 2018 debut but featured in just one T20I on December’s tour of India and was subsequently left out of the T20 World Cup squad.
“Nicola Carey expressed a desire to spend the winter in Tasmania to allow her to utilise a full preseason at home, focusing on using that time to develop skills in her game to push for international selection in the future. We offered Nic a contract because we believe she is a player of international quality, but we respect her decision to focus on a pre-season program with Tasmania and will continue to support her moving forward,” said CA head of performance and national selector Shawn Flegler, as quoted by cricket.com.au.
While Harris has earned a contract upgrade as she has become a key member of Australian T20 side, Garth, Litchfield and Graham have bagged the contracts for the first time.
“Grace Harris earned an upgrade last season. She is a multi-skilled cricketer who can influence matches with both bat and ball. Kim Garth and Heather Graham have performed strongly at a domestic level over the past 12 months, and both thoroughly deserve their spot on the list. Phoebe Litchfield is a young talent who we believe has a big future,” added Fleger.
Cricket Australia women’s contract list, 2023-24: Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Meg Lanning, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham
