Henry Crocombe

Joffra Archer, Overton going down injured as well.

So, yeah, auditions for Henry Crocombe, Gus Atkinson and...

I'm going to forget the third one.

Sonny Baker is the other one that they've had a look at throughout the course of this series.

Yeah, I wouldn't go as far as to say that we've not got major concerns.

And I think Stu's just really alluded to it, the fact that we've seen teams score 170 off nine overs.

So yeah, who'd be a bowler in white ball cricket? But from an England perspective, as I said, I think what we have seen is Henry Crocombe has looked okay.

Bowls at pretty decent pace.

this time.

Why are they playing Henry Crocombe in an ODI against Pakistan to quote the name of that television show? Nobody wants this! Nobody for the last year was like, you know, Henry Crocombe.

It could be a psyop.

Henry Crocombe could just be like a deep state psyop at this point because he got a contract when the powers that be manufacture a kind of situation to try and influence or create a cultural or behavioural impression on the people.

Such as?

playing Henry Crocombe to try and make him a thing.

You want an example of a psyop?

Yeah, I do.

Losing those three matches.

And I read quite an interesting thing today, or heard something today about the selections, that Henry Crocombe, who made his debut in that last match and bowled the ball at Liverpool, costing them the game a fantastic shot by harris ralph down the ground to win the match by one wicket that he wasn't even meant to play in the odis and originally he was sent out to the this tournament mainly as a net bowler to be amongst the players because stephen fleming wanted to see the new england test match coach wanted to see how he handled being abroad and you know, the preparations and the kind of the whole being around the squad, how he would manage it all, with the aim, perhaps, of taking him to South Africa for the Test Match Tour in December.

And he wasn't...

I don't think he was really scheduled to play in one of the one-day matches, but, of course, in the end, he ended up opening the bowling in that third game.

But now you have the next generation of Curran, Archer, Brook, Jacks, et cetera, who have played sort of 30 or 40-odd ODIs and feel like they're getting a bit more of a, an understanding of the format.

Are we gonna see new toy Henry Crocombe?

I, I'd like to, um, as much as anything because it was such an extraordinary punt, I think, to give him a two-year contract.

I, I, I understand why you want to give fast bowlers in particular central contracts, but I was surprised by the two-year aspect of it, just because it's so rare for an uncapped player to, to win an England central contract full stop.

Yeah.

But the body that represents England players and negotiates with the ECB on the players' behalf.

So basically, by giving Henry Crocombe a contract, uh, of...

Name any England cricketer.

Those are probably the things that sort of caught my eye, although there's quite a bit in there.

Henry Crocombe, young fast bowler, has come onto that list as well.

But yeah, those are the main talking points for me ahead of a very, very long and challenging winter of cricket for England.

We've got three tours, I think, before the summer.

Um, Atkinson, n- um, is, I mean, is a good indication of how they're sort of feeling about things.

Um, but the other one who's got a two-year contract is, um, Henry Crocombe.

So formerly of Sussex, now of Surrey.

Um-

The players that have been offered their two-year contracts-

Yes

... obviously H- uh, H- uh, Henry Crocombe is, is quite, quite a young, young person, as is Jordan Cox.

Jamie Smith is, is still fairly young-ish as well.

Make a note of that.

Tom Banton, Sam Cook, Jordan Cox, Henry Crocombe, Emilio Gaye, Matt Fisher, and Dan Lawrence have signed central contracts for the very first time.

While Ollie Robinson returns to the list, having been previously awarded a central contract in 2022 and 2023.

Fisher has previously held an England development contract in 2023 and a pace bowling contract in 2022.

The coaching staff will be in place for the upcoming, uh, s- tours of South Africa and then the white-ball tour to Australia, respectively.

So the full list is as follows.

England's centrally contracted players, Joe Root, uh, of Yorkshire, Harry Brook, Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker, Tom Banton, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethel, Jos Butler, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Jordan Cox, Henry Crocombe, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, Ben Duckett, Emilio Gaye, Matt Fisher, Will Jacks, Dan Lawrence, Saqib Mahmood, James Overton, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Ollie Robinson, Phil Salt, Jamie Smith, and Josh Tongue.

And the England development contracted players are James Coles, Mason, Mason Crane, Josh Hull, Eddie Jack, Ben McKinney, Liam Patterson-White, and Thomas Roux, and also Matthew Revis and Mitch Stanley.