England Give Development Contract to Olly Stone

Pace trio to get extra ECB support

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Olly Stone, Craig Overton and Saqib Mahmood have been handed pace bowling development contracts by the ECB.

The contracts are a new introduction and will see the talented trio given closer support from the National Performance Centre.

Somerset’s Overton, Warwickshire’s Stone and Lancashire’s Mahmood are the first recipients of the new contracts.

National coaches will work with their respective counties and have greater control over their playing time. They will still be employed by their county but the ECB will be making a significant contribution to their employment costs.

Ashley Giles, managing director for England men’s cricket, explained: “Having a strong supply line of high-quality seam bowlers is an essential ingredient for sustained England team success in both white-ball and red-ball cricket.

“We are very grateful to the First-Class Counties for agreeing to this, in particular, Lancashire, Somerset, and Warwickshire. We are committed to working very closely with them to best develop players for the long-term benefit of English cricket and to ensure they are at their very best to perform at optimum levels throughout the domestic campaign.”

Future is bright for England’s seam attack

Mahmood earned his first England call for the winter tour of New Zealand after impressive for Lancashire in white-ball cricket. He featured three times as England beat New Zealand in the T20I series.

Mahmood has now been called up for England’s ODI series in South Africa, which will see three games contested from February 4.

Mahmood will then stay in South Africa for the T20I series to replace the injured Jofra Archer.

Overton’s last cap came against Australia in the fourth Ashes Test last summer. He is due to head to Australia for the England Lions tour in February.

Stone, meanwhile, made his Test debut last year against Ireland. He got the call following impressive showings during England’s ODI series in Sri Lanka in 2018.

All three players will remain under the development contracts with the ECB until September 30, 2020.

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Chris is passionate about all forms of cricket and loves writing about the sport. He has a background in both sport and news journalism and has written cricket and other sports content for several years now. Chris has written about all levels of the game from regional club cricket in England to the international stage. He now brings that experience to the iGaming industry where he combines it with his love of betting. Chris loves to bet on many different sports, but particularly enjoys seeking out the best value bets on offer and passing that on through his coverage.