KEY POINTS:
Wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins is the surprise figure named among 20 players to be offered New Zealand Cricket (NZC) contracts for the next year.
Otago gloveman Hopkins and Wellington seam bowler Mark Gillespie are the newcomers to the list, replacing Central Districts batsman Mathew Sinclair and Auckland allrounder Andre Adams.
Craig McMillan has remained on the list after being reinstated last year following the retirement of Nathan Astle.
NZC general manager Lindsay Crocker said Hopkins had come close over the past two seasons and his form warranted a callup, effectively leap -frogging Peter McGlashan who was called into the New Zealand squad briefly last season.
Contracts are earned through the acquisition of points related to form at domestic and international level. More weighting is given to test rankings than one-day international rankings.
The 20 players with the highest aggregate score are then offered NZC contracts.
The contracts have a tiered pay scale but NZC doesn't make that information available.
The offers were sent to the players last night, who have until June 15 to accept or decline.
Hopkins, 30, played five one-day internationals in 2004, during the tri-series in England against the hosts and the West Indies. He made eight dismissals but only got to bat once, scoring a duck in the final against the West Indies.
At first class level he has secured 267 dismissals and scored nearly 4000 runs at an average of 30.7. He enjoyed his best season with the bat last summer, compiling 514 runs at 85.7.
Crocker said players such as Sinclair and previous opener Craig Cumming missed out under the point-scoring system because they were regarded as test specialists so accumulated few points from the one-day game. In contract, Adams was regarded mainly as a limited-over specialist.
Crocker felt for those players who had narrowly missed out.
The best they could hope for was eight-month retainers from their domestic associations, meaning they are not paid for four months of the year.
A "parachute payment" would help ease the pain for Sinclair and Adams, who will both receive half their previous monthly payments over the next two months.
NZC contracted players:
Shane Bond, Stephen Fleming, James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Gareth Hopkins, Jamie How, Brendon McCullum, Craig McMillan, Hamish Marshall, Chris Martin, Michael Mason, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Michael Papps, Jeetan Patel, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori, Lou Vincent
- NZPA