Martin Love has been awarded a central contract

By Jon Steer
April 25 2003

Despite not playing in the first two test matches in the West Indies, Durham's overseas batsmen, Martin Love has been awarded a central contract.

It is looking likely that Durham will be without Love for most of the season, he will be back with the team next month after the current tour of the West Indies but the awarding of a central contract means that he is almost certain to be involved when Australia host Bangladesh later in the season.

His loss is particularly worrying at the moment with Colly injured.

Love's awarding of a central contract is in contrast to the finacially strapped ECB who have said that they are unlikely to offer any new central contract which means that Harmy will miss out depsite the fact that he still looks likely to be picked to play for England this season.

So that means that Durham will be paying his wages despite the fact that he could miss over half the season on England duty! The same will be true for Colly is he is selected. Not only will Durham lose the services of these two at key times in the season they will be paying for them to!

Not that I'm complaining about them being picked for England, it is great to see our players out there representing the country, perticularly with a test match at the Riverside this season. I just hope that Harmy can stay free from injury and put in some match winning performances for Durham as well...