VSDCA in call to introduce salary caps to local cricket
The president of Victoria’s sub-district cricket competition says many clubs across Melbourne are spending too much money on players and the cash should instead be going towards the development of junior players and coaching.
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Local football leagues have salary caps and cricket will too if the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association has its way.
Subbies president Phil O’Meara believes clubs from Premier Cricket level down are spending too much money on players.
He says it should instead be going towards junior development, school programs and coaching.
O’Meara said a salary cap would go “hand-in-hand’’ with a points cap, which the VSDCA introduced a few years ago.
It is set at 20 points for First XI teams.
The Sub-District association has been discussing a player-payments cap for two years, seeking advice from the Sydney Shires competition, its equivalent in NSW.
The Subbies believe it needs to be introduced in all cricket associations at the same time to make it fair for competition and clubs.
“If you want an even playing field, you need a salary cap,’’ O’Meara said.
“Across the board there is such a big discrepancy in what the top clubs pay and what the bottom clubs pay, and that doesn’t make for a healthy competition in my view. It’s not good for the game.
“The other thing it does is place pressure on clubs and the volunteers to keep finding the money.
“I’d rather see it used on juniors, on development programs, where it should go, especially with all the cuts that have come in (at Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria). We all need to step up a bit more.’’
O’Meara said he was aware of one local Melbourne club that paid players more than $100,000 each season.
He said excessive payments had no benefit to the game, clubs or competitions.
Premier clubs considered introducing a salary cap last year but ultimately voted against it.
A discussion paper presented by one club stated that the average player and coaching expenses at clubs had risen from $37,000 to $57,000 between 2012 and 2017.
“If (expenses) are allowed to continue to increase at the same rate as the last seven years, each club will be paying an average of approximately $85,000 per season, in just five years’ time. The trend over the previous three or four years suggests this figure may actually be conservative.’’
The discussion paper said it appeared “chequebook recruiting’’ had arrived.
The “very financial viability of the clubs’’ would be at risk unless payments were not reduced, it said.
Although clubs were told a salary cap could be difficult to police, the threat of serious penalties — such as fines, loss of points or even suspension and removal from the competition — could deter deliberate breaches.
Players could also be face suspension or deregistration.
VSDCA secretary Ken Hilton said the points cap restricted the movement of players but did nothing to reduce the amount of money players received.
“Our view at Sub-District level is that the two of them complement each other,’’ he said.
“We canvassed it with Premier clubs and some like the concept and some didn’t.
“The VSDCA board is still in favour of it but the feedback from our clubs is that they don’t want to go it alone, that it should be done in one go. At this stage we’ve put it on hold but we’re still talking to the VMCU and talking to Premier clubs about. It’s something we’re keen to keep pursuing with Mark Keating and the VMCU associations and Premier Cricket, because we think player payments have gout out of control.’’
Hilton said the system adopted by Sydney Shires had been a “saviour of clubs’’.
The Geelong Cricket Association has a salary cap and earlier this year it stripped one of its clubs, Bell Park, of three premierships, fined it $5000 and relegated it a grade after finding it breached the payments ceiling.
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