Pace bowling duo win England six month contracts

The England and Wales Cricket Board today announced that Lancashire's James Anderson and Durham's Stephen Harmison have been awarded six month summer contracts to cover this summer's international programme.

The decision to award the pair summer contracts was approved by the Board's International Teams Management Group at a meeting at Lord's this morning.

Anderson and Harmison join nine other players currently contracted for 12 months; Nasser Hussain, Mark Butcher, Andy Caddick, Andy Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, Alec Stewart, Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan.

David Graveney, Chairman of Selectors said: "The thinking behind the awarding of these central contracts was two-fold; firstly, to recognise the achievements of our young players in the international arena, and secondly, to enable the England Coach, Duncan Fletcher, to manage the amount of cricket our players are involved in.

"Both James and Stephen have shown their potential during the winter and I'm sure will go on to have long and successful international careers. For both cricketing and financial reasons, the selectors have only made two additions to the nine players already contracted up to this autumn. "

Anderson, who was England's leading wicket-taker in the World Cup with ten wickets at an average of 22.50, said: "It's great news and I'm really thrilled to have got a contract for the summer. The challenge for me now is to try and win a regular place in the Test side and carry on from where I left off in the winter.

"There's a great deal of expectation about me at the moment, but I'm just trying to stay focused on my cricket and not get too carried away by all the publicity. I'm still new to professional cricket, still learning about the game and I just want to try and get better and show that I can perform consistently at the highest level.

Stephen Harmison, who played four Tests this winter against Australia and was subsequently chosen for the World Cup squad, said: "It doesn't come tougher than an Ashes Series in Australia and I feel that I learned a lot from being involved last winter. Hopefully, the experience has made me a better cricketer and I can build on it this summer.

"With a Test Match at Durham for the first time, there's every incentive now for me to do well and I hope that I can establish myself in the Test team and push to be selected in the One-Day squad again as well."