England seamer David Willey will retire from international cricket after the World Cup after he did not receive a new deal from the English Cricket Board.
The 33-year-old bowler was the only member of England's current World Cup squad to be left out when the ECB announced its central contracts on October 24.
Willey was the only member of the England squad in India not to be given a deal.
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The decision took cricket insiders by surprise, especially since Willey has been one of the team's better performers at the tournament.
He took 3-45 and dismissed star batsman Virat Kohli for a duck against India last weekend but it did not have any bearing on the end result.
https://twitter.com/david_willey/status/1719625561302343995?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“I never wanted this day to come,” Willey wrote on social media. “From a young boy, I’ve only ever dreamed of playing cricket for England.
"So, with careful thought and consideration, it is with great regret that I feel the time has come for me to retire from all forms of international cricket at the end of the World Cup.”
England's campaign at the World Cup has gone from bad to worse since they were installed as one of the favourites. They have lost five of six games so far and have already dropped out of semi-final contention.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan said the ECB's handling of the central contract offers has had an immeasurable impact on the team, and pointed to the issues surrounding future contracts as the catalyst for the team's drop off.
"There'll have been talk every single day about those contracts: 'Who's got what? What have you got? How much are you getting?'
"It's a complete and utter distraction, and it should have been sorted before, and if it wasn't sorted before, we've got to leave it until the end of the World Cup," said Vaughan on the Club Prairie Fire Podcast.
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"I'll let them ring me up and tell me off and say, 'Rubbish Vaughany, that's crap', but I'm going to say the contract situation is the reason that England are playing the way that they are."
Willey has played in 70 ODIs for England and picked up 94 wickets, with 51 wickets from 45 T20s. He was part of England’s 2016 T20 World Cup squad that lost to the West Indies in the final.
"(Willey's) been England's best player in the last three games. England have given out 29 contracts and he wasn't worthy of a one-year contract, which I found staggering. The way he's been treated in this World Cup has been disgraceful," Vaughan added on the BBC.
"You've got a player playing in a World Cup, there's a T20 World Cup next June, and even if you think at this stage David Willey isn't going to be in the squad for the T20 World Cup, he's probably an injury away from being in that 15.
"So you can't tell me you don't want to be looking after someone like David Willey. I don't see how you can give 29 contracts out, yet you don't give one to someone who's playing the best in the World Cup."
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