Cricket Australia contracts

Cricket Australia has released its list of contracted players for the next 12 months.

They are:

NAME	STATE	AGE
Cullen Bailey	SA	22
Nathan Bracken	NSW	29
Stuart Clark	NSW	31
Michael Clarke	NSW	26
Daniel Cullen	SA	23
Adam Gilchrist	WA	35
Jason Gillespie	SA	32
Brad Haddin	NSW	29
Matthew Hayden	QLD	35
Ben Hilfenhaus	TAS	24
Brad Hodge	VIC	32
Brad Hogg	WA	36
James Hopes	QLD	28
Michael Hussey	WA	31
Phil Jaques	NSW	27
Mitchell Johnson	QLD	25
Brett Lee	NSW	30
Stuart MacGill	NSW	36
Ricky Ponting	TAS	32
Chris Rogers	WA	29
Andrew Symonds	QLD	31
Shaun Tait	SA	24
Adam Voges	WA	27
Shane Watson	QLD	25
Cameron White	VIC	23

Without Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer the list looks a bit thin. Yet nobody is irreplaceable: there's unlikely to be another Warne but the test team should be able to be rebuilt around the known strengths.

From a parochial standpoint I was pleased to see the four South Australians given contracts, even though Jason Gillespie, an account of his advancing years (but not, as season 2006 -2007 showed, declining ability) and Dan Cullen (because an unproductive last season) can consider themselves fortunate.