Forgotten quick Mitchell Johnson is one of seven pacemen on Cricket Australia’s contract list of 17 for 2012-13 announced on Friday.
The 30-year-old left-armer has battled injury and form issues and hasn’t played for Australia since November 2011.
Test opener Ed Cowan misses out while short-form specialist David Hussey keeps his contract, despite never playing a Test.
CA has reduced its list of contracted players, as recommended by the Argus review, from 25 to 17 with room to upgrade another three players should they qualify.
The new system is backed up by an increase in the number of state contracts from 15 to 20.
As part of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding signed by CA chief James Sutherland and Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) boss Paul Marsh, the retainer pool for states has been boosted by 30 per cent to help compensate states for reduced national contracts.
Tasmania’s Cowan and George Bailey, the Australia Twenty20 skipper, will be among those seeking state top-ups after not getting national contracts.
The maximum state contract has gone up from $115,000 to $150,000.
“When you consider last year’s minimum CA contract was $160,000 the transition is not that large to go from a CA contract back to a state contract, assuming they’re somewhere near the top,” Marsh said.
Cowan could still gain himself a national contract by earning 12 points, which could be achieved by winning selection in the three-Test series against South Africa in November.
Each Test is worth five points.
Sutherland said with only six contracted batsmen, question marks lingered over Australia’s next wave of international batsmen.
“My sense is that the jury’s out to some extent on the batting side of things,” Sutherland said.
“There is probably some uncertainty in the selectors’ eyes about the exact make-up of the team in Tests, one-dayers and Twenty20s.”
Former Test allrounder Steve Smith, one of 10 players dumped, will see his base payment drop from over $1 million to under $150,000.
Marsh backed the reduced number of contracts.
He said over the past eight years under the 25-man system, two-and-a-half players on average didn’t play one game for Australia.
Test and one-day international skipper Michael Clarke is expected to earn $2 million, overtaking vice-captain Shane Watson as the best-paid Australian player.
CA’s minimum retainer contract is $230,000, with a performance-based model in place.
Australia’s chairman of selectors John Inverarity said the contracts were awarded on three criteria:
* The form of the players over the past 12 months.
* Their likelihood of being selected for Australia in any form of the game the next 12 months.
* The weighting for Tests outweighs one-day internationals, which outweighs Twenty20.
Inverarity said he expected several players to receive upgrades and he added selectors retained considerable faith in Cowan, Bailey and ODI players Clint McKay, Peter Forrest and Dan Christian.
CA said Cowan was unavailable for comment on Friday.
Contracted players: Michael Clarke, Pat Cummins, Xavier Doherty, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson, Ricky Ponting, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Matt Wade, Shane Watson, David Warner.
* Players dropped from last year’s 25-man list: Doug Bollinger, Callum Ferguson, John Hastings, Nathan Hauritz, Phil Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Steve Smith, Cameron White.
* Players added: Matthew Wade, David Warner, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc.
