How Ricky Stuart sparked a cricket war in the wake of one of Australia’s greatest ever wins

Australia’s cricketers were on top of the world when news filtered through of Ricky Stuart and Laurie Daley’s Super League wages. What unfolded next changed Aussie cricket forever.

This West Indies tour is the 30th anniversary of the day when rugby league great Ricky Stuart and his Canberra mates sparked a cricket pay war without even realising it.

And an ugly stoush it was too, with — we can reveal — death threats, snubs and even a physical confrontation.

But more of that later …

Shane Warne and a couple of other players were in a side room of the Pegasus Hotel in Jamaica at the end of the victorious 1995 tour when the West Indies were beaten in a series – by anyone – for the first time in 15 years.

Spirits were high. Australia had become the world’s No. 1 cricket team. But the pay rates for Australian cricketers were almost laughably low.

Australian players after their first Test win over the West Indies in 1995.

Steve Waugh kisses the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy.

The natives were restless. It just needed a spark to start a fire … and here it was in the form of single faxed page of back page Australian newspaper headlines.

Warne was trying to send a fax when the machine started buzzing with some material from home.

These were the pre-internet days when players relied on Cricket Australia staff to fax through the sports pages from home and Warne’s jaw dropped when he saw the back page news that Canberra’s Ricky Stuart and Laurie Daley would each earn $600,000 a year, plus a $100,000 sign on fee to join rugby league’s News Corp backed Super League competition.

“Those figures are amazing,’’ I overheard one player say.

“They are getting six times what I am getting.’’

Faxes of the Super League salaries were taken by Warne and others to breakfast the next day and the Australians, fortified by becoming the world’s No. 1 team with their brilliant 2-1 series triumph over the Windies, knew they were approaching a seminal moment when they had to unite and fight for a better deal.

Australian Cricket Association representative James Erskine (left) and Graham Halbish.

All-rounder Brendon Julian, who played in all four Tests on that West Indies tour, remembers the vibe.

“It was about that time that we were talking about forming a players’ union and when the Super League figures came out we thought “this is the real world,’’ Julian said.

“It was a standout moment. I just don’t believe cricketers had any idea of what they were worth.

“Then to see it there in front of us — $700,000 for one year — it put it on the radar and put things into perspective. It was actually a good thing for us to see.’’

Julian was on $50,000 a year at the time. Allan Border retired a year earlier with his final contract a paltry annual sum of $90,000.

Fortified by their status as the game’s top team, angered by the disparity between their pay and that of the Super League players, Australia’s cricketers finally decided to form a players’ union which had Tim May as its boss, Steve Waugh secretary and Shane Warne treasurer.

Their biggest moment was when they recruited James Erskine, arguably Australia’s most experienced talent manager who guided the likes of Shane Warne, golf great Nick Faldo and British broadcast legend Michael Parkinson and didn’t mind decent scrap, to help steer the ship.

Ricky Stuart after a Super League meeting.

Laurie Daley lands back in Canberra after signing for the Super League.

“Tim May rang me when I was in Port Douglas on holidays and asked if I could do some golf days to raise money for the players and I said I was not interested in chook raffles,’’ Erskine said this week.

“I said if you guys are serious let’s get all the players together and we will take on the ACB (Australian Cricket Board). So I met the team at Canterbury in England (in 1997) and I remember checking in at the hotel under an assumed name.’’

Eventually Australia’s players, after threatening to strike, received a deal which now sees them given 27.5 per cent of Australian cricket revenue and salaries skyrocketed. But the dispute was lengthy, extremely combative and Erskine was once physically assaulted and received two anonymous death threats.

“It was an incredibly tense time,” Erskine said. “I had a couple of phone calls at home. I was in the White Pages. One of them said: ‘Just be careful. Your life is in danger.’ Crap like that.

“I wasn’t particularly worried about it. I reported it to the police and I think for a couple of days I had a guard outside my place.

“I was on the escalator at Melbourne Airport going down and a guy coming up said, ‘You are the guy stuffing up the cricket’ and he grabbed my shirt. I think he was just a disgruntled punter.’’