Aussie players receive new pay offer

Australia

Cricket Australia have presented the Australian Cricketers Association with a formal formal payment MOU offer which would break up the revenue sharing model currently in place.

CA have made few changes to the pay model that the ACA rejected late last year but have deigned to include female players in a single MOU.

The ACA have held a firm line on their refusal to give up the revenue sharing model as they see this as an attempt to cut players out of a growing number of revenue streams in particular in the digital realm.

The new agreement if accepted will see female players earning a 125% pay increase and see them afforded the same hourly rate as men in domestic cricket.

CA chief executive James Sutherland said in a release to the media: “We are pleased that the Australian Cricketers Association agrees with us that women, for the first time, should be part of the MOU, and we have proposed a financial model that has gender equity at its heart.

“Under the proposal, women will receive an immediate average pay increase of more than 125%. As a result, our international women cricketers will see their average pay increase from A$79,000 to A$179,000, as of July 1 this year. By 2021, we expect to see our international women cricketers earning an average of A$210,000.

“And our state female cricketers, playing both WNCL [Women’s National Cricket League] and WBBL [Women’s Big Bash League], will see their average remuneration more than double from A$22,000 to A$52,000 this year.

“Under this offer, we will achieve gender equity by ensuring that the minimum and average hourly pay will be the same for state men and women in 2017/18. In addition, match fees for the WNCL and the Matador Cup will be exactly the same: a one-day game for a state cricketer is worth the same to both men and women.

“We are also introducing, for the first time, prize money for the WNCL of A$258,000 and the WBBL of A$309,000 this coming summer.”

CA have indicated their desire to use any revenue generated over and above projections to fund development of the game in other areas rather than giving a cut to the top men’s players who generate the most revenue for the body.

Sutherland added: “We have placed the emphasis on increasing the guaranteed amount that the men will receive, rather than rely on any projected increase in revenue.

“We understand that the ACA prefers the status quo, but CA believes that the model devised in the 1990s, which is based on a fixed percentage of revenue, has served its intended purpose – to make Australia’s cricketers some of the best paid sportspeople in the country.

“It was a means to an end, not something that has to hold us back from providing players with financial certainty, a fair deal for all players including women, and the flexibility to invest in the grassroots of the game.

“This is a landmark agreement. We are now looking forward to sitting down with the ACA to work through the details and we are confident we will be able to announce a completed agreement before June 30.”

In the past the MOU has included a grant that would help to fund the ACA who not only protect the rights of current players but assist former players who fall on hard times, Sutherland would not elaborate on whether this would continue.

He went on: “That’s something that is in the detail of the proposal, I don’t want to go into that right now.

“It’s something we can talk about later on. In the first instance we see that as a matter for the members and the ACA to consider and we can talk through that detail in the future.”

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