Picture by Gareth Copley/Getty Images. Matthew Revis bats for the England Lions in Australia last winter.
Matthew Revis says he is “absolutely buzzing” to have been awarded a development contract by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
The Yorkshire all-rounder’s name was present amongst Monday’s announcement of England’s latest central contract cycle.
Test captain Joe Root, Harry Brook and Adil Rashid have all had their main central contracts renewed, the former two for the next two years and the latter for the next year.
Revis was then amongst a group of nine players to have been awarded one-year development contracts, a nod to the national management’s view of their potential.
James Coles, Mason Crane. Josh Hull, Eddie Jack, Ben McKinney, Liam Patterson-White, Thomas Rew and Mitch Stanley are the other eight.
Revis, aged 24 – he turns 25 next month, has been involved with the England Lions for the last 12 months.
He said: “I’m delighted, really. I was involved with the Lions last winter in Australia and Abu Dhabi and this summer in that T20 against Sri Lanka at Beckenham.
“But to get this recognition of a contract for the next year, I’m absolutely buzzing.”
In short, the awarding of a development contract allows the England management to monitor that said player and have their say in what games he plays.
“For the next year, obviously throughout the Lions’ winter schedule, and then leading into the summer stuff as well, they work a little bit closer to you,” said Revis.
“Your likes of Harry Booker, their strength and conditioning coach, and those type of people will be around and monitoring. The coaches will obviously be monitoring from afar.
“There will obviously be things with the Lions in the summer, and me being their player now gives them the power to potentially pull me out of Yorkshire fixtures if they think my workload’s a little bit high.
“But, with the relationship we have with them – Harry having previously worked at Yorkshire, we work very closely. I’m sure that kind of thing won’t be a problem.”
Revis enjoyed another progressive summer, including playing for SunRisers Leeds in The Hundred from late July to the middle of August.
In 28 appearances for Yorkshire in both the Rothesay County Championship and the Vitality Blast, he contributed 771 runs and 22 wickets. He scored four half-centuries – two in each competition, with his standout contribution a brilliant unbeaten 69 to secure a tie against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in late June when the White Rose looked like losing.
He batted as high as number three in Yorkshire’s Championship team but mainly at five and also contributed five scores in the forties.
He has already spoken about his determination to convert those scores into the type of centuries he posted during the 2025 campaign, but he is still encouraged by his contributions over the last six months as his game continues to move forwards nicely.
“If you look across the board in the country at the batting, you’d see that averages were probably lower than in years gone by,” said Revis. “But I still felt good all season.
“With the forties I scored, the 50 against Glamorgan first game and then my 61 against Essex late on, they kind of mean a little bit more this year given all of the the scores around the country.
“I don’t know how the batting points married up to years gone by, but I’d assume they were a fair bit lower because of some of the pitches we played on.
“Some of the contributions I made, I was perhaps kicking myself at the time for not being able to go on. But, with how close some of the matches were, they were innings which were quite telling in the end.”
A lot has already been spoken about Yorkshire’s strong end to the summer, which saw them win their last three Championship matches and four out of the last six to finish fifth in the Division One table.
And Revis added: “I feel like we all kind of clicked together at the same time, and we really used that momentum over the last six games.
“Mags spoke at the start of that last block about trying to put our front foot forwards and driving it through to the end of the season. To be able to do that was very pleasing.
“Four wins could have easily been five with that Surrey game (one-wicket defeat at The Kia Oval).
“But the way in which we competed and went about it, hopefully it’s only going to stand us in good stead and we can use that momentum to kick on at the start next year.”
