CA and players' union agree on pay deal

Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association on Friday announced a fresh five-year agreement, featuring a new performance-dependent players' share of revenues. The new agreement retains many aspects of the previous agreement but includes some significant changes. Both parties have agreed to a change in the players' share of revenues from a fixed 26 percent to a variable 24.5 to 27 percent annually dependent on theperformances of the Australian teams. The revenues include television rights, match ticket sales and sales of licensed products and merchandise. A reduction in the number of CA contracted players was also negotiated from 25 to 17-20 along with a significant performance bonus pool for Australian players on top of their retainers and match fees. CA and ACA also agreed that bonuses will be available for match and series wins, ICC event wins and for finishing first or second in the overall and annual ICC Rankings. In other decisions, players will no longer be subject to retainer reductions for playing overseas cricket and the ACA will receive 26 percent of net 2015 World Cup revenues to help develop, with CA, a past player and game development legacy programme. CA Chief Executive James Sutherland and ACA Chief Executive Paul Marsh said each organisation believed the new agreement was a significant milestone for Australian cricket. "We are pleased with the agreement we have reached with ACA. We all want Australian cricket teams to be successful and this agreement will greatly enhance the likelihood of success over the coming years," Sutherland said. Marsh said the new agreement provided significant outcomes for current, future and past players. "The framework we've negotiated will also benefit future players and as such we believe it is the most comprehensive agreement the ACA and CA have ever negotiated," he said.