By IANS
Sydney : Seeking a bigger share of income, especially the Twenty20 version, Australia’s top cricketers are set to collide with their board, which says the current system of Test and first-class players receiving 25 percent of all revenue is fine.
“At present, the player payment pool – budgeted for just under $33 million this financial year – is split with 55 percent going to Cricket Australia’s (CA) 25 contracted players, and 45 percent to contracted state players,” Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.
“The minimum base contract, before match payments, for a CA-listed player is now $160,000 a year, with the maximum contract – held by captain Ricky Ponting – worth more than $650,000. Match payments are $12,750 per Test and $5100 per one-day international. For state players, the base contracts range from $40,000 to $110,000, before match payments.”
The players, as usual, will be talking to CA through the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA).
“I think the players have shown over a long period of time they have been responsible. But the game is obviously very healthy financially at the moment. Our view at the moment is that 25 percent is less than what the players contribute to the game,” said ACA chief executive Paul Marsh.
“I don’t want this to be turned into a massive public row but, at the same time, that has been our view since day one. If the game can afford more, we’ll be asking for more,” he declared.
“CA and the ACA have begun gathering detailed analysis of revenue and expenses ahead of the mid-year talks which could become as messy and protracted as the sometimes bitter 2004 discussions. As revealed in December, CA plans on legitimising Twenty20 cricket by making the format a key component of player payments,” wrote the paper.
CA operations manager Michael Brown, who handles all contractual matters, said the board is investigating rating a player’s value in Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20.
He had said in December that CA had “no intention of increasing” the 25 percent cut players receive currently.
“I think there is a strong chance we will factor in Twenty20 as a third form of how the player payments will work out,” Marsh said, citing the inflowing revenues, especially from Twenty20.
CA would also be getting an undisclosed sum from the Indian Premier League, to be held in India in April, for allowing its players to appear in the eight-team competition based on Twenty20 matches.