'17 women players to be offered national contracts for 2023-24'

CANBERRA [Australia]: Cricket Australia have announced the list of 17 women players to be offered national contracts for 2023-24. Thirteen players have been retained from the last season.

This time the total number of women's contracts available has moved up from 15 to 18 under Cricket Australia's new MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the players.

Grace Harris, Kim Garth and Heather Graham have made their way to Cricket Australia's women's contract list this time. Each player has been offered a contract for the first time.

The rising star of Australia's women's cricket, Phoebe Litchfield, has secured a playing contract. She made an instant impact with unbeaten half-centuries in her first two ODIs earlier this year against Pakistan.

The 19-year-old star was also named in Australia's squad for the upcoming Women's Ashes Tour of the UK.

"It's been an incredibly successful 12 months for the Australian women's team, but our attention now turns to the challenges ahead, particularly the upcoming Ashes Series in England," Shawn Flegler, Cricket Australia's head of performance (women's cricket) and national selector, said as quoted by ICC.

Grace Harris earned an upgrade last season and subsequently played every match throughout the T20 World Cup, she is a multi-skilled cricketer who can influence matches with both bat and ball, Fleger said.

"Kim Garth and Heather Graham have performed strongly at the domestic level over the past 12 months, and both thoroughly deserve their spot on the list. Phoebe Litchfield is a young talent who we believe has a big future, she's built her game upon a very sound technique and we're confident she can transfer those skills into international cricket," Fleger said as quoted by the ICC "We've had a core group of players performing well over the last 12 months which means some talented players have missed out, it's certainly made selection tough but we're in a fortunate position to have such depth across Australian Cricket," Fleger continued.

Australia women central contracts: Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Meg Lanning, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham.