O'Keefe, Shaun Marsh miss out CA contracts
Apr 24, 2017 - 5:10 AM Troubled tweaker Steve O'Keefe and batsman Shaun Marsh have been snubbed for Cricket Australia contracts in a signal they're surplus to Ashes requirements.Allrounder James Faulkner and wicketkeeper Peter Nevill have also been overlooked in a list of 20 cricketers proposed to win CA contracts for next summer.
Amid ongoing pay talks between CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA), contracts can't be enacted as the current agreement expires at the end of June.
"The terms and conditions that underpin any (future) contract have not been finalised," ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson said in a statement.
He said the two bodies remain "a long way apart on a number of issues".
Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations, O'Keefe and Shaun Marsh won't be offered contracts in further signs of generational change in Australian cricket.
Left-arm spinner O'Keefe was this month fined $20,000 and banned from next summer's domestic one-day tournament for drunkenly abusing a woman at a NSW awards ceremony.
Despite taking 19 wickets in the recent four-Test series loss in India, O'Keefe's cards appear marked - fellow spinner Ashton Agar will be offered a contract.
And Marsh, who averaged just 19 runs an innings on the Indian tour, has also been overlooked, though rivals for his Test spot Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head will be given fresh contracts.
Chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns says the omissions came after hierarchy assessed the looming summer which includes a home Ashes series and a Test series in South Africa.
"We have selected 20 players for this year's contract list with a focus on players who we believe could play a part in an exciting 12 months of cricket," Hohns said in a statement.
"Consideration has also been given to some players who we believe could potentially play in all three formats for Australia."
Agar, West Australian allrounder Hilton Cartwright and emerging paceman Billy Stanlake will be offered CA contracts for the first time.
O'Keefe, Marsh, Faulkner, Nevill, Peter Siddle, George Bailey, Joe Burns, Nathan Coulter-Nile, John Hastings and retiree Adam Voges all miss out after being contracted last summer.
Recent India tourist and rising ODI star Marcus Stoinis and 2016 Test debutants Nic Maddinson, Joe Mennie, Jon Holland and Callum Ferguson also failed to win contracts.
Source: AAP
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