The landscape of Australian cricketer contracts is undergoing significant changes as Ashton Agar, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Behrendorff, and Andrew Tye have been omitted from Western Australia's contract list. This allows them the flexibility to pursue freelance opportunities with various franchises.

All four players would easily secure spots in Western Australia's first-choice Marsh Cup 50-over team, and they haven't retired from international cricket. However, none of them are included in WA's contract list for 2024-25. This decision follows Agar and Stoinis being excluded from Cricket Australia's 2024-25 contract list, despite Behrendorff being Australia's reigning T20I player of the year.

Agar reached this decision after consulting with Kade Harvey, WA's general manager of high performance, Adam Voges, WA's coach, Andrew McDonald, the coach of the Australian team, and George Bailey, the chairman of selectors for Australia.

Tye signed a one-year deal with WA last season, which prevented him from participating in the ILT20 earlier this year due to the Marsh Cup final. He has chosen to freelance again, as he did for the two seasons before.

Behrendorff will freelance for the first time in his career, having earned a CA upgrade last year. Although he had a year remaining on his previous WA contract, he decided to terminate it early to gain more flexibility.

Stoinis, aged 34, finds himself in a slightly different situation. He didn't play for WA at all last season, only participating in four Shield matches and two Marsh Cup games since March 2020.

He had long planned to freelance after not securing a CA deal for 2024-25, but he still wishes to represent Australia beyond the T20 World Cup in June, in both T20I and ODI cricket. It's understood that he's considering signing something similar to a year-round deal with his IPL franchise, Lucknow Super Giants, which would involve commitments to the franchise's various teams across different tournaments worldwide throughout the year. He has already played for Durban's Super Giants in the SA20 and LSG in the IPL this year.

"Ashton, Jason and AJ will continue to be supported by our High Performance program as valued members of the WA Cricket setup," Harvey said.