Cricket 2021: Multi-year contracts in play as debate rages over availability for national duties
Pat Cummins is among a host of senior male and female players offered multiple-year contracts, but it comes amid controversy surrounding availability for national duties.
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Selectors have made a bid to lock in the loyalty of senior players by offering multiple-year deals to senior players on the contract list as debate rages over some of those players’ availability for national duties.
Pat Cummins had made it clear in the past two contract periods that he thought Cricket Australia should offer multiple-year deals to players to provide more certainty.
There was some intent to reintroduce multi-year contracts for the 2020-21 period but cricket bosses believed the pandemic made it too difficult.
However, they have been offered in recent meetings with players for the 2021-22 period.
Cummins, the No. 1-ranked Australian player in the past two years, argued in 2019 that bowlers put their physical health on the line to play for their country and deserve more security.
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Cummins, Mitchell Starc, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon and Steve Smith were among the players offered the deals.
Cricket Australia has also offered, for the first time, multi-year contracts to senior female players.
It is understood that if a player signs an extended contract they are guaranteed at least 66 per cent of their deal in the second and third year.
While the contracts offer security they cannot match the amounts doled out for players in the IPL.
Multi-year contracts are not new in Australian cricket, but have not been offered for some time and come as controversy surrounds players missing the tour of the West Indies following attendance at the IPL.
Cricket Australia’s general manager of teams, Ben Oliver, said the longer contracts allowed a level of assistance with future planning and were appropriate recognition for players with proven track records.
“We are pleased to be able to offer our male and female players multi-year contracts which are commonplace in professional sport,” he said.
“The contracts are an appropriate recognition for those who have performed strongly at international level and who are expected to play a key role in Australian teams into the future.”
In 2019, when Cummins first made a public bid for more security, he and Mitchell Starc were among the players who used the IPL period to rest.
Cummins, who is the highest-paid players on the Australian list, has had a change of heart since.
The quick was bought for $3.16m to play for Kolkata Knight Riders in the most recent series.
The second half of the 2021 IPL was postponed, forcing the Australians into a holding pattern as they waited for the government’s border ban on India to be lifted. Several of those players then opted to sit out the West Indies tour, citing fatigue.
Selectors, however, have made it known they would not look kindly on those players who skipped the West Indies series returning to the Indian tournament.
Starc, who is in the West Indies, made it clear he had chosen to forego the money on offer in India so he could be at his best for Australia.
“Certainly one of the reasons over the last few years that I haven’t been going to the IPL is to have that time to refresh and be the best I can for Australia,” Starc said. “I can’t speak for other people, but that’s certainly how I’ve approached it, spending time with family.
“Obviously Alyssa and I both have conflicting schedules and that is some of the only time we get to spend time together and with family, that’s how I’ve approached it; wanting to play as much as I can across the formats for Australia first and foremost.”
Former coach John Buchanan this week blasted players for skipping Australian tours, saying they should face some financial penalty.
“It’s a privilege, not a right, to represent your country,’’ Buchanan told Robert Craddock. “Players should not be in a position to pick and choose when they play for Australia unless injured or it is part of their overall management plan.
“Should they choose not to play, then they should understand that they are not upholding their part of their contract, and so their contract is either diminished or made null and void.’’
REVEALED: AUSSIE CRICKET’S HIGHEST-PAID PLAYERS
The rankings for this 2021-22 player contracts make interesting interpretations and analysis with both Australian Test captain Tim Paine and batting star Marnus Labuschagne not among the six highest paid — or rated — cricketers in the country.
Paine, who has led the reformation of Australian cricket, along with coach Justin Langer, is understood to be the lowest ranked Australian captain since the pay scale was introduced in 1988 when Mark Taylor was at the helm of the national side — although he would certainly not be the lowest paid.
Captains have traditionally topped the player rankings, but Paine has never held that spot.
His Test side had just four games in an 18-month period but, with the Ashes this summer, the men in white will be the focus of extraordinary attention and pressure.
The Australian understands that Pat Cummins is the highest ranked and paid player for the second year in succession.
Steve Smith is back again at No. 2, David Warner is at three, bowler Michell Starc at four and Josh Hazlewood is the fifth ranked player.
Players were informed of their rankings in a series of meetings with national teams boss Ben Oliver and head selector Trevor Hohns.
Cricket Australia explained on Tuesday the selectors use a combination of selective and objective measures including performance over past 12 months, schedule for the next 12 month and projected roles of players to arrive at the valuation.
The players are told their ranking and pay scale but have no ability to negotiate. While the top-ranked payer has been given a contract valued at $2 million or more in recent years — plus significant other payments including match fees, selection fees, win bonuses and the like — this year it is understood the top pay scale is around $1.7 million before the other additions.
There was an expectation that Labuschagne, who has a Test average of 60 and was the highest scoring batsman in world cricket in 2019, would be among the top-ranked players.
While Labuschagne was not named in the white-ball squad for the Australian tour of West Indies the indication was that selection was made because of geography, pandemic restrictions and associated complexities.
Labuschagne’s disappointment was acknowledged by selectors and his form for Glamorgan in recent matches indicates how handy he is with bat and ball in short-format cricket.
In his 13 ODIs for Australia he has averaged 39.4 with the bat and a T20 international average of 29.84 with a strike rate of 125.
Selector Trevor Hohns defended the contract list that included just three Test batsmen in its 17 players, saying it had a “strong core group which cover all forms of the game for the 12 months ahead”.
Hohns added that format specialisation meant more uncontracted players representing Australia.
After white-ball tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh, Australia’s focus is on October’s T20 World Cup which the BCCI confirmed this week would be shifted to the UAE.
There are, however, six Tests this summer including an Ashes series which is considered the ultimate contest on the Australian cricketing calendar.
All-rounder Cameron Green, who was impressive in the series against India, was given a contract, but Joe Burns, Travis Head, Will Pucovski, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade. Marcus Harris, Marcus Stoinis and Moises Henriques missed out. In 2020-21 20 players were contracted, but this year it was reduced to 17.
Players can earn a minimum contract by playing enough Tests and/or white ball games. Labuschagne was not on the contract list in 2019-20 but earned one after being picked as a concussion substitute for Steve Smith in the Lord’s Test.
Players need to accrue 12 points to earn a contract with Tests worth five, ODIs two and T20s one point.
In a conversation on The Australian’s Cricket Et Cetera podcast earlier this month CA chief executive Nick Hockley denied the inclusion of just three Test batsmen on the contract list was a poor reflection on Australia’s high performance systems.
“The contract list is more a question of the fact there is competition for places,” Hockley said. “There are numbers of contracts we are able to award, there is a band between 17 and 20 which we have left open because it is so competitive.
“It’s a case of those players in contention putting their hands up for those central contracts.
“Everyone is extremely focused on what is coming up this summer, it’s a must win, I have this little … I know a huge amount of preparation is going in to make sure the men’s and women’s national teams are in peak form for the Ashes.”
Originally published as Cricket 2021: Multi-year contracts in play as debate rages over availability for national duties
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