five worcestershire players have extended or signed new contracts with the 2018 vitality blast winners.
they join a raft of players who have already committed their long term futures to New Road.
worcestershire ceo matt rawnsley said it provides a “really good platform” for the county in striving to achieve their goals for the next three to five years.
all-rounder ed barnard, who won four trophies at the county’s 2018 awards evening, has signed a one year extension to his current deal taking his contract to the end of the 2021 campaign.
he earned his first england lions call-up last summer and was chosen in the pca team of the year.
batsman tom fell, who was converted into an opener for the finale of the season, and wicket-keeper-batsman alex milton, a century-maker on his county championship debut against somerset, have put pen to paper on new three year contracts from 2019 to 2021.
left arm spinner ben twohig and batsman and second eleven captain olly westbury have extended their contracts by a further 12 months until the end of the 2020 season.
westbury, milton and twohig all made their senior debuts for worcestershire last summer with the latter two both playing seven specsavers county championship matches.
the quintet follow all-rounders ross whiteley and wayne parnell plus newcomer, batsman riki wessels from nottinghamshire, who all recently signed three year contracts.
with moeen ali and brett d’oliveira having four years remaining of their contracts and ben cox another three years, it means the county have a sizeable bulk of their squad signed up for the foreseeable future.
matt rawnsley said: “to have a commitment from players over a longer period of time is great. we’ve got very strong plans as to where we want to be as a club over the next three to five years.
“for people to be signed up until the end of 2020-2021 is really positive and then there are others like moeen who is with us until 2022.
“that gives us a really good platform to build around for the next few years.
“we are also a club that will attract good players. riki wessels is evidence of that and for him to have joined us on a three year deal is great for us.”
rawnsley has outlined the county’s targets for the 2019 season after the joy of winning the vitality blast five weeks ago on finals day at edgbaston.
he said: “to get promoted back to division one in the championship, that’s the aim for next year, and to maintain our status as the best one-day side in the country is really important for the 2019 campaign.”
