Players offered $1 million-plus to abandon Big Bash League, says Paul Marsh
Australia’s top cricketers have been offered more than $1 million a head to ditch the Australian summer and play in the exclusive South African Twenty20 competition, players’ boss Paul Marsh has confirmed, amid concerns about unspecified plans to sell stakes in Big Bash League teams.
Marsh also confirmed that some Australian players are yet to sign their central contracts with Cricket Australia for this summer, despite the new financial year starting this week.
Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association are currently in talks over a way to get more BBL salary cap money into the hands of top Australian players, and the overseas player draft is likely to be canceled to achieve this aim.
This imprint had previously reported that a group of senior players would seriously consider seeking a no-objection certificate from Cricket Australia to play in the SA20 in 2028 if they were unsure of what they viewed as fair market value for their services in the BBL. Australian captain Pat Cummins denied he was considering SA20 in a social media post.
Discussions between CA and ACA are currently ongoing, in parallel with wider discussions about the future of the BBL and possible private investment. The sale of stakes in the teams is not on the agenda at this time, depending on other matters to be agreed between CA and the provinces, including new management for the CA and BBL.
However, Marsh made it clear that players expected these results with rival leagues circling. The top Australian players currently in the BBL are paid around $300,000 per season or less. CA and ACA want to find ways to ensure these players receive a bounty of close to $800,000 per season.
“Some of our players have been offered over $1 million Australians to go to SA20,” Marsh told this imprint. “When you compare that to what they won in the BBL, it comes out five times plus in some cases.
“That’s absolutely real, there are a lot of players who are offered very significant financial implications and there are players who are weighing that up. If they’re Australia-contracted players it’s going to be difficult, but if they’re not it’s a little bit easier.”
“In a perfect world our players would rather stay here and play in the BBL and sign Australian contracts, but there are some facts here that we are all aware of. There are real opportunities out there.”
Asked how many players Australian cricket would lose to South Africa and elsewhere if the BBL’s salary cap does not increase, Marsh said he was still hopeful the mass departure of players to freelance on the franchise circuit could be prevented.
“I hope not, because we have reached an agreement that will allow us to keep our players here, that is our aim,” he said. “But we’re also in a world where players have more options than they’ve ever had. We’re very aware of the threat here and we’re trying to do something about it.”
“Some [players] Some think we should continue privatization, some think we shouldn’t. But our players have a range of opportunities right now, so they’re trying to understand where this is all going so they can help inform the decisions they make.
“Scheduling is one of the biggest issues in cricket and we need to get to a point where we have a window for international cricket so players don’t have to make some of the choices they’re making at the moment.”
If the sale of BBL clubs goes ahead at all, it would lead to a renegotiation of the collective agreement between players and CA, which currently runs until 2028. The ACA wants players’ income percentage to increase from the current level of 27.5 percent to more than 30 percent, a prospect that is not well received by CA or the states.
It is likely that the management model of Australian cricket will change before this dispute is resolved. Marsh said the players were determined that an independent review would be preferred over a negotiated agreement between the CA and the provinces.
“If they’re going down the management review route, we think it should be an independent review,” Marsh said. “To find out what the best governance model is for Australian cricket, rather than a compromise agreement between the CA and the states.
“This meeting has achieved some level of unity, but the devil is in the detail here. We have some concerns about the potential management changes that could come from this and what is really needed here is an independent review of the management model rather than some sort of negotiated outcome, because this is probably the biggest problem in Australian cricket and that needs to be worked on.”
“We want to have a serious discussion around that, on what the governance of the BBL looks like, and then the state funding model and the MoU will be linked to the overall finance model.”
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of many books on cricket.Connect with: X.
