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Something that I feel could be adjusted is how the England central contracts interact with County contracts. As things stand, when a player is given a central contract after previously being a paid player on a county salary it auto-maintains their county contract duration at whatever it was when the contract was granted. If you've just signed a player to a 3 year contract when they get the ENG contract they stay at 3 years with your county, while a player who was in their final year with your county when the central contract is granted will stay at 1 without expiring as long as they have the central contract.
This is fine while a player is in their prime but it can be quite frustrating when a player stops getting their central contract in their late 30s. A player who'd always been there on the squad list but not really there as they were always away with England might suddenly show up on your squad list at contract time eating up 60,000 salary at the age of 37/38 with 2 years still to go, as they had 3 years to go when they initially got the ENG contract. At that age they can be half useless compared to a player who hasn't had 5-6 years of age decline but still eating up a large portion of your budget. If you terminate the contract you have to pay half so it's not an ideal solution.
I might suggest that ENG central contracted players see their county duration tick down each year as usual, but then maybe stay refreshing at 1 year as long as they have the central contract? That means as soon as they lose the central contract they go back to their county salary at whatever duration would've been left normally but if they'd been centrally contracted longer than their initial county contract (or for the same duration) they'd be expired in the summer and you have to renew them the same as any other player.
It would mean that if you give a player a 3 year contract and he gets contracted to ENG for 1 year, then dropped, he'll return to you with 2 years to go the same as you originally signed him. But someone you give a 3 year contract to who then gets the central ENG contract maintained for the following 11 years won't end up returning to you on whopping huge star player salary with 2 years still to go when he's now barely able to lift his bat due to old age.
Just a thought!
This is fine while a player is in their prime but it can be quite frustrating when a player stops getting their central contract in their late 30s. A player who'd always been there on the squad list but not really there as they were always away with England might suddenly show up on your squad list at contract time eating up 60,000 salary at the age of 37/38 with 2 years still to go, as they had 3 years to go when they initially got the ENG contract. At that age they can be half useless compared to a player who hasn't had 5-6 years of age decline but still eating up a large portion of your budget. If you terminate the contract you have to pay half so it's not an ideal solution.
I might suggest that ENG central contracted players see their county duration tick down each year as usual, but then maybe stay refreshing at 1 year as long as they have the central contract? That means as soon as they lose the central contract they go back to their county salary at whatever duration would've been left normally but if they'd been centrally contracted longer than their initial county contract (or for the same duration) they'd be expired in the summer and you have to renew them the same as any other player.
It would mean that if you give a player a 3 year contract and he gets contracted to ENG for 1 year, then dropped, he'll return to you with 2 years to go the same as you originally signed him. But someone you give a 3 year contract to who then gets the central ENG contract maintained for the following 11 years won't end up returning to you on whopping huge star player salary with 2 years still to go when he's now barely able to lift his bat due to old age.
Just a thought!