Fresh offer in in Australian pay impasse
With a week left to the deadline and a break to the impasse seemingly not in sight, Cricket Australia presented a revised offer for a new pay deal to cricketers yesterday to include all domestic players in a share of the game’s surplus and further top up their annual pay rises.
Whether the development will serve as a circuit breaker in the highly troubled talks is yet to be seen, arriving after weeks of escalating hostility between the governing body and the Australian Cricketers’ Association and with only days remaining until international players and many of their state colleagues are out of contract.
CA, which has also now begun offering individual contracts to players, has not ceded to the players’ demand to retain a percentage of the game’s revenue in its new offer but says it will increase the A$20 million (NZ$20.8m) cap on the share of international cricket surplus to include all domestic players.
CA’s planned model had included international men sharing in up to A$16m of surpluses, with the leading women sharing in up to A$4m. Shield players were be excluded for the first time since the maiden 1997 deal was brokered.
The revised offer was contained in a letter to ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson from CA’s lead negotiator Kevin Roberts yesterday.
‘‘Player feedback suggests that the sharing of international cricket surpluses with male and female domestic players and the level of pay increases for male state players are critical issues for them,’’ Roberts wrote.
‘‘CA is now offering to: increase the international cricket surpluses that are shared with players; include all domestic players in the sharing arrangements, and increase annual pay rises to male state players [with commensurate increases for WNCL and WBBL players to maintain gender pay].’’
Roberts added: ‘‘On a related matter and as previously advised, contract offers are being distributed to all players to give them an opportunity to seek advice. These contracts are conditional upon a new MOU being agreed. If further increases in pay are agreed for male state players, along with WNCL and WBBL players due to the increases contemplated above, the offers in the contracts would be varied accordingly.’’
Under CA’s plan, international men will have their average earnings increase from A$1.16m to A$1.45m by 2022. State-based male cricketers will pocket an average A$235,000 by 2022, having enjoyed a 53 per cent increase in the past five years.
Negotiations for a new memorandum of understanding have gone nowhere lately and been marked by increasing resentment on both sides of the divide. Roberts said he hoped the ‘‘ACA will respond positively to this new offer that CA is proposing in order to achieve a positive outcome for the players and the game’’.
The offer was delivered only minutes after the players’ union had itself issued a call for CA chief executive James Sutherland to intervene and engage with Nicholson to find a solution to the ongoing dispute. Nicholson had attended a meeting with CA on Wednesday, where the ACA is understood to have received CA’s detailed financial report – something it had long requested.
However, ACA president Greg Dyer maintains ‘‘the current talks between the Australian Cricketers’ Association and Cricket Australia have failed to achieve a breakthrough’’.
‘‘With only seven days until the June 30 deadline, the ACA calls for emergency mediation to be conducted at CEO level,’’ he said yesterday.
‘‘As things stand, from June 30 most of Australia’s elite male and female cricket players will be unemployed, jeopardising upcoming tours and ultimately the summer of cricket. This creates uncertainty for broadcasters, sponsors, players and administrators.
‘‘And potentially stains the game, in the eyes of fans, and Australia’s reputation in the international community.
‘‘In recent weeks, the ACA has effectively been ‘negotiating with ourselves’ to try to break through. This is clearly unsatisfactory.’’
Dyer said players were preparing for a lockout from Friday, when those without multi-year state contracts will no longer be paid by CA.
The ACA will step up plans to secure new commercial sponsors for players through their new imagerights company, The Cricketers’ Brand. This could also lead to players forming a breakaway competition if a broadcaster can be found.
The ACA is also preparing to help pay players through a hardship fund, issues which will be discussed at an emergency June 30 meeting.
Australian captain Steve Smith also bought into the debate yesterday, declaring the players were united behind the ACA.
‘‘The players are completely united behind the ACA in these negotiation terms. We know they’re working incredibly hard for us to get the best outcome for the game and the fairest share for the players as well,’’ he said.
Australian batsman Aaron Finch said players were determined to retain the current model.
‘‘The ACA is negotiating on behalf of every player for the best interests of the player and the best interests of cricket . . . we are not asking for what we haven’t had in the past. It’s just about what is fair and reasonable for the players,’’ he said.
CA’s pay offer, on face value, would appear to be lucrative for elite female players, with average annual salaries to leap from A$79,000 to A$179,000. The average pay for state-based female cricketers will rise from A$22,000 to A$52,000 at a time when the Women’s Big Bash League remains in a fledgling state.
Players also want A$29m of adjustment ledger money from the existing MOU paid out now, rather than carried forward into next deal, which CA has indicated it wants to do.