Kiwi Best Given License to Follow the Money

 

NZ player released from central contract for T20 franchise opportunities.
Elizabeth Ammon.
The Times.
Thursday, 11 August 2022.
PTG 3963-19458.


New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has agreed to release Trent Boult from his central contract after the fast bowler said that he wanted more time to spend with his family and to make himself available for the more lucrative T20 franchise leagues. Although Boult, 33, is not the first international player to walk away from a central contract from their national governing body in favour of T20 money, it is a further signal of the pull of franchise contracts over playing international cricket.

A NZC central contract is worth about £UK250,000 ($A433,330) — Boult’s Indian Premier League deal alone is worth almost four times that and it is expected that he will be confirmed as one of the marquee players in the new International T20 league being played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next January on a contract that is also worth more than his annual central contract.

NZC confirmed that although Boult is still making himself available for national selection but his involvement in international matches will be “significantly reduced”. It is expected that the fast bowler will play for New Zealand in the Twenty20 World Cup in October-November but may not feature much after that. Boult, who has represented New Zealand 215 times across all three formats, told his governing body that he had lost the appetite for touring and understood that players on central contracts would be prioritised for selection. “I still have a desire to represent my country and feel I have the skills to deliver at international level”, the left-arm seamer said. “However, I respect the fact that not having a national contract will affect my chances of selection”.

England, India and Australia, sometimes known as “the big three”, offer much more lucrative central contracts than most other countries, with the value of an England and Wales Cricket Board multi-format contract being about £UK1 million ($A1.73m). They are therefore less likely to be affected by the proliferation of new T20 leagues, which also mostly take place outside of the English summer. However, there will continue to be clashes between England fixtures and T20 domestic tournaments, the first example being next February when England are due to tour South Africa for a three-match One Day International series. That will take place at the same time as both the new South African T20 franchise league and the UAE’s ILT20 are underway.

It is expected that more than 50 English players, including Moeen Ali, will be contracted to play in either of those tournaments and a decision will need to be taken whether they are allowed to miss England fixtures. There is a risk that if players are not given permission by the their governing bodies to miss international fixtures to complete their franchise contracts, they may simply decide to retire from that format or from international cricket completely.

Meanwhile, the Women’s Hundred, which begins on Thursday, has been hit by the withdrawal of the Australia captain Meg Lanning, who was due to play for Trent Rockets. Lanning, who was part of the Australia team that won gold at the Commonwealth Games last week, has decided to take an “indefinite break" from all cricket for “personal reasons". Lanning was one of the big-name stars due to take part in the Hundred and a replacement overseas player will now be sought by Trent Rockets.






What the Trent Boult case means for Australian cricket.
Daniel Brettig.
Melbourne Age.
Thursday, 11 Augist 2022.
PTG 3963-19459.

Australia’s cricketers will push for the kind of contract flexibility available to their counterparts in New Zealand, where Trent Boult is expected to play in the Twenty20 World Cup later this year despite getting released from his national deal (PTG 3963-19458 above). Boult, who can be expected to be chased by the Big Bash League, the South African Twenty20 league and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) league this southern summer, has added his example to a wider trend towards players seeking greater freedom of choice.

Up to now, Cricket Australia (CA) and the England and Wales Cricket Board in particular have been able to stave off the approaches of domestic leagues by paying handsome retainers to their players, but events of recent weeks, as privately owned tournaments in South Africa and the UAE have offered huge money in the southern summer, have changed all that.

Todd Greenberg, chief executive of the Australian Cricketers Association that is shortly to begin pay negotiations with Cricket Australia, said greater flexibility in terms of contracts will be weighed up against the need for the players to aid the governing body in raising revenues (PTG 3956-19324, 5 August 2022).

“That’ll be a point of discussion:, said Greenberg. “It sometimes sounds almost counter-intuitive when you consider the fact that what the players need to do is drive hard into an alignment with the governing body around revenues that are domestic and here during our traditional summer. Flexibility will be a discussion they [the players] expect us to have, but all these things form part of something broader, because we want our country to be competitive on the global stage”.

Even before Boult and the all-rounder Jimmy Neesham took up casual contract terms with New Zealand Cricket, Black Caps players had been afforded far greater flexibility than Australian cricketers due to a disparity in central contract sizes. Where the top CA contract is worth about $A2 million (£UK1.2m) a year, the New Zealand equivalent is less than a quarter of that.

Apart from requiring them to play in the Super Smash domestic Twenty20 event, and also be available whenever selected for the national side, New Zealand cricketers have no calendar restrictions on where they may play. New Zealand Cricket must still grant them a No-Objection Certificate, but terms are invariably reached. By contrast, Australian contract holders (whether CA or state-based) are required to train and play on home soil between September (at the nominal end of the English season) and April, albeit with an exception for the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Nevertheless, the increasing number of rich Twenty20 events, plus the recent explosion in the value of the IPL broadcast rights – set to be reflected in the league’s salary cap from next year – means that not even CA will be able to ring-fence its players for too much longer.

”We’ve tried to manage his workload, but he’s found it increasingly difficult”, said NZC chief executive David White. “But I also think the combination of Covid and managed isolation over the last few years has had an impact as well. I know that Trent’s found that difficult. He’s played for New Zealand for eleven years and has been a terrific player, and we respect that, so we’ve had very positive conversations, and we’ve worked through it together. We’re incredibly respectful of him and what he’s done for the country, the way he’s played in all three formats has been quite outstanding”.

Australia’s head coach, Andrew McDonald, said the evolution of the cricket system had been continuous throughout his playing career, and expected conversations around international cricket to oscillate in tune with the staging of major events. He said on radio: “The game has accelerated in the last ten years, and what does it look like in the next ten years, I’m not sure. I think the heat will come onto different formats at different times. One-day cricket’s under the pump now, what does it look like in terms of a World Cup next year in India? I think it’s going to be big. Then it’ll become about T20 international cricket, is that relevant because it’s not a World Cup year”.