With confirmation that veteran fast bowler Paul Reiffel will play on for at least one more summer, Victoria is still leaving the way open to appoint separate first-class and one-day captains next season.

In announcing its list of contracted players for the 2001-02 domestic summer today, the Victorian Cricket Association has confirmed that 35-year old Reiffel will again be one of its key players. But, as yet, there is still no official word as to the complexion of the side's leadership team for either its Pura Cup or ING Cup campaigns.

Before matters need to be finalised at the end of September, the Victorians still have the opportunity to add a maximum of three other players to join the list of fully contracted players - a list from which current Australian Cricket Board contract holders Shane Warne, Damien Fleming, Colin Miller and Ian Harvey are exempt. In naming their initial group of seventeen, though, they have only made marginal changes to the squad which has carried them into successive Pura Cup Final matches during the last two Australian seasons.

Instead, it is principally from the signing of their first four 'rookies' (under the terms of the newly-introduced system that allows previously unsigned players under the age of 23 to be tied to twelve-month retainers) that the Bushrangers have sourced newcomers for the upcoming season.

All-rounder Jonathan Moss and outstanding young leg spinner Cameron White are the two players to win elevation to the core group of contracted senior players for the first time. Each featured prominently in the state's colours during the closing stages of 2000-01, not least of all in the Pura Cup match against New South Wales in Sydney as the Bushrangers clinched their berth in the Final.

Moss, 26, only arrived in Melbourne part of the way through the season after crossing from New South Wales in a bid to advance his career. White, 17, originates from Bairnsdale and is an exciting hard-hitting batsman and accurate leg spinner who has already made a big impression in state underage teams and in district cricket with Dandenong.

The four players who have won rookie deals are batsman Travis Birt and all-rounders Liam Buchanan, Andrew McDonald and Tim Welsford. Birt is a current scholarship holder at the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy and each of the quartet has played in both Victorian and Australian representative underage sides.

Out of favour among the players contracted last season are batsmen Laurie Harper, Clinton Peake and Graeme Vimpani, and pace bowlers Simon Burriss and Lea Hansen. Off spinner John Davison is also not among the names to have been re-signed, although it is understood that it is merely his preparations for the upcoming ICC Trophy tournament in Canada that have delayed the negotiation of a new deal.

Reiffel, for his part, is expected to be re-appointed as captain of the first-class team, thereby continuing to serve in a post that he has held for each of the last two seasons. But there has been conjecture in some quarters that he may not appear in the limited-overs arena again, leading in turn to suggestions that left handed opener Matthew Elliott may be elevated to the Bushrangers' leadership position in that form of the game.

The full list of players with Victorian state contracts for 2001-02 is: Jason Arnberger, Darren Berry, Shawn Craig, Simon Dart, Matthew Elliott, Shane Harwood, Ian Hewett, Brad Hodge, Mathew Inness, Michael Klinger, Michael Lewis, Jonathan Moss, Matthew Mott, Ben Oliver, Paul Reiffel, Peter Roach, Cameron White.

Rookie contracts: Travis Birt, Liam Buchanan, Andrew McDonald, Tim Welsford.

ACB contracts: Damien Fleming, Ian Harvey, Colin Miller, Shane Warne.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd