ECB HAMMERING OUT PAY CUTS WITH STARS
England don’t nail down paceman with Test contract
ENGLAND’S top cricketers begin their new central contracts today, but are still to discover the size of the pay cuts they know they must take to ease the sport’s Covid-19 crisis. The worth of the new deals, which sees Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Dom Sibley the Test contract winners, and Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wood the big losers, are yet to be agreed, with negotiations ongoing about the players’ share of the ECB’s financial burden. Ashley Giles, the England team director, admitted yesterday he hoped an agreement would be in place by now but remained adamant players who salvaged the game’s future this summer by completing a full international programme in a biosecure environment would accept cuts to deals that can be worth up to £900,000 a year. ‘Although the players have been in a bubble for the majority of the summer
they are not blind to the reality of what is going on in the world,’ said former England spinner Giles yesterday. ‘They understand they have a part to play in that.
‘The players have done a huge amount this summer to keep the lights on for cricket but they are mature and realistic about what is going on.
‘The discussions have been really positive and I’m confident we are close now.’
The ECB will lose a minimum of £106million this year despite rescuing the bulk of their broadcasting revenue with 18 televised international matches, and are in the process of making cuts that will see 62 people within the governing body lose their jobs.
But there is an acceptance that they are almost totally reliant for their financial health on the men’s England team, who made a £500,000 donation to charity, the equivalent of a 20 per cent wage cut over three months, in April.
So, Sportsmail understands, the losses to the players now will not be huge but they will, says Giles — who along with other ECB executives has taken a pay cut himself throughout the summer — have a ‘material effect’ on the game’s immediate future.
The new deals see the future of England’s Test batting — Crawley, Pope and Sibley — rewarded for the first time but, as Sportsmail reported yesterday, Bairstow has to be content with a white- ball contract and a cut of around £600,000. ‘It was a tough call to o make because he remains ns an important player, but I hope this leaves him still hungry ngry to have a big role in Test cricket,’ icket,’ said Giles. ‘It was hard news for him to hear but he took ook it as well as you could ld expect and he still has a desire to play Tests.’
The other eye-catching omission from the list of 12 centrally contracted red- ball players was Wood, who o has only been given a white-ball deal.
The dearth of slowbowling owglish options in English cricket was reflected by the absence of any spinner r in the 12. Instead, Dom Bess ess and Jack Leach have incremental emental contracts worth around ound a basic £80,000 a year before fore this year’s deductions, while ile Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali remain on white- ball deals worth around £250,000.
‘There is a pecking order in terms of the attack and, d, while the impact of Mark is huge when he’s on the field, he has only played three Tests sts this calendar year,’ added d Giles. ‘Mark is still under our umbrella mbrella and we will look after him. im.
‘Jack and Dom have played important roles for us but ut there are only so many awards ards to make and there were e some tough decisions.
‘I can only hope they continue ontinue to develop because we e would love to be offering a Test contract to a spinner.’
The good news is that at Giles remains ‘ very confident’ nt’ that all England’s scheduled d cricket this winter — in South h Africa
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WOOD has taken 50 Test wickets for England at an average of 32.36
with the white-ball team before Christmas and Sri Lanka and India with the Test side in the new year — will go ahead.
‘We are in constant dialogue with countries around the world and it is very important we work together across the globe to get cricket on,’ said Giles. ‘ We are due to play South Africa, Sri Lanka and India and we are very confident all this cricket will happen but we have to remain flexible and leave decisions until the last minute.’