10 June,2009 03:35 PM IST | | PTI
In a move aimed at preventing talent drain to the cash-awash Indian Premier League, Cricket Australia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Australian Cricketers' Association promising increased pay packages for players.
CA and the ACA have committed themselves to increased pay packages alongwith emphasis on off-field welfare of cricketers by giving them a "normal life" acknowledging the global economic downturn. Players will be remunerated for CA-related sponsorship work and, for the first time, the top-six players will receive "fixed contracts", in which match payments for the next 12 months will be paid out in full at the beginning of CA's pay cycle, according to a CA press release.
Cricketers' overall share of CA's revenue projected at USD 296 million over the next two years has increased from 25 to 26 per cent from previous MoUs. "It is critically important to us that we pay what the game can afford - and, in so doing, that Australian cricket maintains an appropriate balance between its investment in elite cricket and its investment in grassroots cricket," CA Chief Executive James Sutherland said.
"The new MoU does this. Once again, the agreement is in many ways like a partnership and delivers CA and the ACA an outcome which offers the players more while also increasing Australian cricket's investment in game development."
CA will maintain the current number of national and state contracts, but will substantially increase their value. A base national contract will increase from a minimum USD 144,000 to USD 168,000 over the next two years, with minimum state deals to rise from USD 35,000 to USD 41,500 over the corresponding period. Match payments are also set to rise, and prize money for state competitions will almost double from USD 439,000 to USD 800,000.
"CA is very aware what is now in front of elite players in terms of IPL-style opportunities. Unlike some other countries, they have not yet lost players other than those who are already at the back end of their careers, and I think this MoU reflects the commitment to retaining players for the long term," ACA chief Paul Marsh said.
"Players can be away from home for up to 10 months a year and that, by anyone's standards, is an unnatural life," he said. "And with opportunities opening up in the IPL, the EPL and the Southern Premier League - where players can earn more money for less cricket - I think we have now an understanding that if we want to keep players in Australia, we have to give players as normal a life as possible."
CA has also acquiesced to ACA calls for players' partners and loved ones to be welcomed on tours, and for welfare programmes to be set in place to prepare cricketers' for life after the game.
