Cricket Australia (CA) announced its annual retainership list for the Australian men's team for the 2024/25 season. 23 players were handed the annual central contracts which included four players, who found their name in the list for the first time. Pacers Nathan Ellis and Xavier Bartlett and all-rounders Matt Short and Aaron Hardie were named in the list alongside 19 other players, who were retained from the last year. Marcus Stoinis and David Warner were among five players, who weren't retained from the last year.
"Matt, Aaron and Xavier have been extremely impressive in the early stages of their international careers," said national selection chair George Bailey in a CA statement on the contracts. Bartlett, who made his debut in the West Indies white-ball series, was the player of the series in ODIs while Aaron Hardie is being seen as the Stoinis replacement in the middle-order in white-ball cricket and has impressed in the few chances he has got. "The panel believes they have strong futures and are deserved of their contracts as they work towards striving to become regulars in the Australian setup," Bailey added.
Stoinis, who missed the New Zealand T20 series is still very much in the T20 World Cup plans for Australia, but Australia have definitely set the transition process in motion with Hardie. David Warner was the other big name, but since the 37-year-old has already retired from two formats and will retire from international cricket after the T20 World Cup, his omission was expected. The other players to miss out on central contracts were Marcus Harris, Ashton Agar and Michael Neser, who recently was on the two-Test tour of New Zealand.
CA men's central contracted players for 2024/25: Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Jhye Richardson, Matt Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa
