Northants confident of agreeing new contract with Duckett

Duckett’s current deal runs until 2017, but with the 21-year-old having enjoyed an incredible campaign, there is likely to be interest in his services.

Northants are desperate to hold onto the batsman, who scored 70 in the second innings of the clash with Glamorgan this week.

That took his County Championship tally for the season to an impressive 1,338 at an average of 60.81.

Duckett was also a star of the NatWest T20 Blast-winning campaign, hitting a match-winning 84 in the semi-final victory against Nottinghamshire Outlaws.

And Ripley said: “He’s had a fantastic 18 months.

“We’re just hoping he gets some good news in terms of being picked for England’s upcoming tour of Bangladesh because he deserves it.”

And on the contract negotiations, Ripley said: “We’re very hopeful it (a contract extension) will happen.

“We’ve had good negotiations with Ben and his father and it’s certainly our desire to improve and extend Ben’s current deal.

“We’re hopeful of getting it confirmed in the next couple of weeks.”