Marcus Hook’s Surrey CCC column: Alec Stewart pushing for contract change

Last week, Surrey named the seven young cricketers selected for the Surrey Boys’ academy for 2023.

The announcement came on the heels of an interview with Alec Stewart, on Sky Sports, in which the former England captain said the time has come for the domestic game to look at player contracts.

Many of the Oval outfit’s men’s squad progressed through the Surrey pathway during their junior careers, including Rory Burns, the Currans, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Jason Roy and, more recently, Gus Atkinson, Tom Lawes and Jamie Smith.

Since 2003, a total of 30 men from the academy have gone on to play county cricket with the women’s side helping Alice Capsey, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Bryony Smith progress to reach international honours.

Stewart, who is in his 10th year as Surrey’s director of cricket, has touched on the impact of franchise cricket on county resources, international and domestic schedules as well as development pathways to first-class cricket in England.

He said: “The way the contract system works needs to be changed. I know I have other directors of cricket who share a similar opinion.

“We want all the players to earn big money – we aren’t here to deprive them – but players have to understand that when they’re here, they’re ours.

“When they’re with a franchise they are their player. But we are the ones who give them a 12-month contract, 12 months’ health insurance, 12 months’ physio provision and 12 months of coaching.

“Where does that fit in the bigger picture? Which, for us, is Surrey and England. There needs to be a mutual respect from county to players and from players to county.

“This year we’ve the biggest staff we’ve ever had at Surrey. We’ve got four in the IPL, we will lose two or three to the Ashes and then there’s England white-ball cricket at the end of the summer to cater for.

“I still believe your reputation is gained through Test cricket. In franchise cricket, you only get six-week contracts. I know there is talk of 12-month franchise contracts, but, at the moment, with a six-week contract, if you have a bad tournament, where are they? They’re out on their own. That’s why the county system needs to be looked at so that players can’t think: ‘Oh well that didn’t work, I’ll just go back to my county.’”

With the chance of earning vast sums of money in different leagues around the world, more and more England-qualified players are opting to sign white-ball-only deals with their counties.

“Gus Atkinson has had a taste of franchise cricket. But we keep telling him that franchise cricket won’t go away,” said Stewart. “With his ability, he should challenge himself to become the best red-ball cricketer and the best white-ball cricketer he can be.

Given that the bedrock of Surrey’s success is largely down to their player pathway, make a note of the seven newbies – Arjun Gill, Luke Griffiths, Ollie Pascall, Krish Patel, Harry Porter, Ollie Sykes and Stuart van der Merwe.