Lawyer's concern at pay cut tactic as Cricket Australia rolls out player contracts

Amid the chaos of coronavirus and the game's cash crisis, there will be a momentary sense of normality on Thursday as Cricket Australia announces its centrally contracted players for 2020/21, with Marnus Labuschagne headlining a group of up to six from outside last year’s men’s list likely to score deals.

The announcement will give brief pause to the focus on CA’s financial status and the handling of it by chief executive Kevin Roberts, as well as the division that has been created internally by the standing down of most of its staff on 20 per cent pay for $3 million in savings.

Marnus Labuschagne will rocket from outside the contract list to near the top of the men's player rankings.Credit: AAP

There was another twist on that front on Tuesday with a leading employment lawyer saying it was concerning CA employees were asked to sign consent letters agreeing to their pay being slashed “when in reality they have really little choice to object”.

As for the players, they will likely learn on Wednesday whether they have made the cut to receive a CA retainer. There are expected to be 20 players on the men’s list, as there was a year ago, but the names won’t be the same.

Those in danger of losing central contracts include Marcus Stoinis and Nathan Coulter-Nile, who have fallen out of favour since last year’s World Cup, Usman Khawaja, Marcus Harris and Peter Handscomb, who have lost their spots in national teams, and Shaun Marsh, who is nearing 37 and at the end of his international career.

Labuschagne, the No.3 ranked Test batsman in the world after a record-breaking 896 runs across five Tests last summer, will surge onto the list and has claims to be among the highest earners. Players are ranked privately by CA selectors and paid accordingly.

Others in the mix to win contracts from outside last year’s field are Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar, Kane Richardson and Mitchell Marsh. There may be only one spot for either Test opener Joe Burns or short-form specialist D’Arcy Short.

The Twenty20 World Cup, scheduled for October and November, has been a crucial factor in selectors’ thinking but there is a good chance it won’t go ahead as planned.

Players to retain contracts should include Pat Cummins, who was last year’s top earner on between $1.5m and $1.6m, Alex Carey, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, James Pattinson, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner and Adam Zampa.

April 30 is the last day the contract lists for men and women can be named under the memorandum of understanding between CA and the players. In recent years they have been revealed at the start of April. The later announcement, brought about by COVID-19, has left the states waiting to confirm their squads for the season, with the game still in an embargoed period for signing players from interstate. Those expected to make switches have agreed only to non-binding deals to date.

The fallout continues, meanwhile, from CA’s standing down of more than 80 per cent of its staff until the end of June, which officially began this week.

The Herald has obtained a copy of the letter hundreds of staff were emailed on Tuesday last week and asked to sign by the following day. It stated: “As with other sports it is now apparent that CA’s financial position has been, and will continue to be, significantly affected as this situation continues. To give ourselves the best chance of retaining as many of our team as possible, it is our responsibility to look at further measures to limit costs, including employment costs.”

“Due to the urgency implementing these measures, we request that you confirm your consent to these changes by 10am, Wednesday 22 April 2020 by signing this letter.”

CA could not force staff to be stood down because it did not, at that stage, qualify for the JobKeeper scheme. Some staff members consulted lawyers after receiving the letter but felt they had no alternative but to sign and that Roberts had given little warning that such drastic action was to be taken.

“If you’ve got to get their agreement to reduce their conditions, it gives rise to the suggestion that perhaps you don’t have the lawful right to stand them down otherwise,” said employment lawyer Giri Sivaraman, a principal at Maurice Blackburn.

“I think it’s strange. I find it concerning that employees are being asked to take a pay cut when in reality they have really little choice to object.”

A CA spokesperson told the Herald: “Our people were asked to stand down to help support the organisation through a period of financial uncertainty. No one had to say yes, but the fact that everyone did is a reflection of their trust and commitment to cricket regardless of how they felt about it personally.

“Nobody is happy about it but everyone trusts it’s the right thing to do to help reduce the impact in the next financial year.”