'Awesome' deal for cricketers
2007-07-24 16:43
Johannesburg - South African cricketers will become bigger stakeholders in the game and receive a share of the profits in a formalised agreement signed by their union and the sporting body which governs the game.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the South African Cricketers Association (Saca), from which both franchises and players will benefit, was announced at a media conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
It is the first comprehensive agreement of its kind in South African sport, and believed to be the way forward for the next three years for professional cricket. It covers all aspects of the game in an effort to attract new players, new fans and prevent youngsters leaving the system to play overseas.
Based on what Saca believes to be best practices relating to professional cricket around the world and adapted to the local environment, the MOU standardises contracts and benefits for players, regulates the number of playing contracts, provides for salary minimums and salary caps and for optimal use of South Africa's player resources through regulations relating to player transfers, player loan-outs and playing overseas in the off-season.
The way forward
Norman Arendse, president of CSA said the agreement was not the "be-all and end-all" of cricket but it was a framework which reinforced the healthy relationship between CSA and Saca.
"It is the way forward for us and we feel this is a model that ought to be adopted by other sporting codes," said Arendse.
Transformation is also formalised in the document and confirms 40% of players on contract to each franchise must be black.
"Fortunately, all these players have performed at franchise level which makes it a lot easier for us to select a team which is representative and picked on merit," added Arendse.
Tony Irish, CEO of Saca was instrumental in getting the agreement off the ground. He said the MOU is a sound business model and sets a platform on which the affairs of cricket will be run.
"It provides a view of its financial position and projects and averages its revenues over the three-year period and then links what players will earn to the financial position of the game.
"We can predict, almost to a cent, how our money will be split between franchises and players.
"What players will receive in the future will depend on how successful the game actually is and, as players, we will obviously work with other stakeholders to make it as healthy as possible into the future," said Irish.
Players will be consulted closely and work with other stakeholders, such as sponsors and broadcasters, to optimise the commercial aspect of the game.
"Players will need to rise to the challenge, both on and off the field," added Irish.
National player and Saca president, Ashwell Prince said that the players had been pushing for this kind of agreement for a long time.
Graeme Smith described the agreement as awesome
"It gives us more responsibility but we're keen to take it on. We realise the importance of us how the public view us and the message we can put across."
Proteas captain, Graeme Smith described the agreement as "awesome" for the players.
"From our point of view, we want to see the game get stronger. It's important to take the game forward and we don't want to lose any more good players," said Smith.
He also remarked on the impatience of the younger players who want to "jump ranks" and said only exceptional talents can do that. In the past, players developed through the ranks and played age-group cricket and represented the A side before making it into the top team.
"We want to see our players get back to that and earn their place. Get out there and perform and you will get your reward," said Smith.
- SAPA