EXCLUSIVE: ECB could end up paying millions to players - even if they are injured - under terms of new central contracts after they guaranteed to honour them in full

The ECB face the prospect of shelling out millions of pounds to players who are unable to play under the terms of the new central contracts system.

Mail Sport has learned that a guarantee to honour the full duration of the new multi-year deals regardless of whether players are fit to feature during the period in question delayed the announcement of the 29 contracts until four matches into a calamitous World Cup defence.

It is an issue that seems particularly relevant to the fast bowlers Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, both of whom have a long history of injuries.

Wood, who turns 34 in January, has signed up for three years while Archer, without a Test appearance since facing in India in February 2021 and with only seven caps all told since that tour, was awarded a two-year deal.

As multi-format cricketers, the pair are at the top end of a contracts pay scale ranging from £150,000 to £900,000 per annum.

The ECB’s decision to pay players in full regardless of their future participation, following negotiations with the Team England Player Partnership, represents a huge investment in an England team that has won 13 of 18 Tests under Ben Stokes’ captaincy and was until a fortnight ago double world champions in limited-overs cricket.

Such a commitment shows loyalty to the group of players who propelled them to those heights and in theory provides England managing director Rob Key and the coaches Brendon McCullum and Matthew Mott with influence on individuals’ workloads, notably those of their match-changing pace bowlers.

Wood was influential in England coming back from 2-0 down to share last summer’s Ashes series while Archer was a pivotal figure in the 2019 World Cup victory and in that year’s 2-2 Test draw with Australia.

However, there also appears to have been some panic in the award of contracts for 2023-24, caused by the global growth of franchise cricket.

Since their inception at the turn of the millennium, central contracts had covered only a 12-month period but in this latest round from October 1, 18 players have been secured for at least twice as long. With a new Memorandum of Understanding to be negotiated ahead of a long-term broadcasting deal running from the start of 2025, the value of subsequent years’ salaries is yet to be determined.

Key recently admitted that Wood’s situation - he was offered a lucrative ILT20 opportunity with Dubai Capitals that directly clashed with England’s five-Test tour of India early next year - triggered a re-think of the ECB’s contracts strategy. They effectively had to incentivise to levels not previously considered to ensure the availability of A list players for critical junctures of the calendar.

But it will not preclude players participating in the global game’s leading Twenty20 tournaments like the Indian Premier League, occasionally at the expense of international commitments.

Meanwhile, the future of Dawid Malan remains up in the air, after he was completely overlooked for England’s eight-game tour of the Caribbean, starting in Antigua on Sunday.

After confirmation he would be the recipient of a 12-month ECB deal, Malan, 36, informed Yorkshire he wished to downgrade the final two years of his county contract to white-ball only in a bid to prolong his international career.

However, following his West Indies tour snub, and the likelihood of missing Twenty20 World Cup selection next summer, it is understood he would be open to entering a pay-as-you-play agreement for first-class cricket.