Hughes awarded first Australian contract

Test opener Phillip Hughes was among seven new players awarded contracts with Cricket Australia for the 2009-10 season.

Callum Ferguson, Graham Manou, Peter Siddle, Andrew McDonald and Marcus North were also awarded their first national contracts while off-spinner Nathan Hauritz returned to the 25-player list.

Phil Jaques, Beau Casson, Ashley Noffke, Shaun Tait and Adam Voges all lost their contracts while Matthew Hayden and Stuart MacGill were not considered after retiring last season.

"It's obviously a very exciting time for players receiving their first contract, such as Phillip Hughes, who has had an outstanding start for Australia and will have an important role in the team's future," Australia's chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said in a statement.

The 25-man squad included players for both and Test and one-day internationals and comes a week before Australia announce their squad for the Ashes Test series.

"It's obviously an important time for Australian cricket with the Ashes on the horizon. I can't talk specifically about Ashes selection today as that will be finalised next Wednesday morning," Hilditch said.

"With respect to one-day cricket, we're building towards the 2011 ICC World Cup and that was strong in our thoughts when finalising this list."

Contracted players for 2009/10: Doug Bollinger, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Callum Ferguson, Brad Haddin, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, Brad Hodge, James Hopes, Phillip Hughes, David Hussey, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Graham Manou, Shaun Marsh, Andrew McDonald, Marcus North, Ricky Ponting, Peter Siddle, Andrew Symonds, Shane Watson, Cameron White.