Banned but still being paid

STEVE Smith and David Warner have just experienced cricket’s version of plunging off the fiscal cliff, but Cameron Bancroft is still getting paid.

Over the weekend in Toronto the Cricket Australia salaries of the deposed captain and vice- captain went from somewhere in the vicinity of $ 2- 2.5 million to . . . zero. June 30 marked the end of Smith and Warner’s existing CA deals, and they won’t receive another cent from the governing body until the end of their 12- month bans.

Bancroft is still getting paid under his multi- year state deal with Western Australia.

Cricket Australia weren’t able or willing to terminate an existing contract as part of the sanctions they handed down.

But in Smith and Warner’s case – because they were on one- year national deals – CA could simply not renew them for the new contract cycle.

The irony of course is Smith and Warner – and other high profile stars – last year rejected multi- year national contracts offered by Cricket Australia during a pay dispute.

Had the pair taken those deals, they may not have copped the $ 2 million whack they’ve just experienced.

Bancroft had been upgraded to a CA contract based on the Test matches he played during the Ashes and against South Africa, but once that deal expired on June 30 he has now reverted back to the West Australian deal that was already in place for 2018- 19.

Clearly Bancroft is on nowhere near the kind of dollars Smith and Warner have been earning. Base state contracts rarely go over $ 150,000 before match payments are added.

Bancroft’s sanction is also only nine months and he will be back playing for WA for the second half of the summer, while Warner and Smith are gone for the domestic season.

It’s WA paying Bancroft not the governing body, but now that June 30 has been and gone it may still raise eyebrows that when there were three players all punished for the one incident at the one time, that they have been dealt with under different conditions.

Particularly when it’s understood that one of the reasons why CA decided they wanted Smith, Warner and Bancroft playing club cricket rather than State Cricket during their international bans was because they didn’t want them to be seen earning money from the system while suspended.

It’s been estimated Smith and Warner may have lost up to $ 5 million out of the scandal, given they were also axed from their IPL contracts and lost sponsors.