Former Proteas seamer Rusty Theron has retained a central contract with USA Cricket.
In mid-2019, Theron met the three-year residency threshold under the International Cricket Council’s eligibility requirements – and has since played nine ODIs for the United States of America.
Prior, he played four ODIs and nine T20Is for South Africa between 2010 and 2012. He also represented the Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League – and Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League.
USA Cricket’s contract retainees
- Saurabh Netravalkar (captain)
- Rusty Theron
- Steven Taylor
- Monank Patel
- Aaron Jones
- Nisarg Patel
- Akshay Homraj
- Karima Gore
- Nosthush Kenjige
Theron and the other players who have retained central contracts will reportedly each be paid $1800 (approximately R31,000) per month.
What USA Cricket said
“The USA Cricket board identified that the restructuring of the contracting model around the men’s national team was an important exercise given the unprecedented events of 2020,” said USA Cricket board chairman Paraag Marathe this week.
“We have not played any international cricket since February and we are currently uncertain as to when our next fixtures will be, whilst at the same time we are forecasting a decline in our current and future year revenues as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We recognise the personal challenges which now face those players who have not been selected. However, the board has not taken this decision lightly and we were pleased to be able to keep all of the contracted players in a full-time capacity through until the contract expiry date of 20 July 2021, and further extended those contracts for an additional month in order to provide further support and notice to the playing group.
“USA Cricket remains on an exciting journey and the board remains fully committed to developing and investing in a sustainable high-performance environment so that our men’s and women’s teams can deliver results on the international stage moving forward. However, these are challenging times for sports organisations around the world, and especially in the USA, and we have a responsibility to make difficult decisions to protect the future of the game.
“Unfortunately the pandemic has interrupted our journey and this action has become necessary, alongside other action which the board has taken, to ensure that we are best placed to support the USA national teams in 2021 and beyond.”