Multi-year contracts offer more certainty to top players

Pat Cummins is among a host of senior male and female players offered a pay guarantee in the second and third year of new contracts.

Pat Cummins speaks from his hotel isolation in Ahmedabad in India

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 number-one 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.

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 eneral 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.’’