Australia’s captain Pat Cummins has been offered a Cricket Australia contract extension to 2029 that would raise his earnings to around $4 million per year, ahead of a gruelling season that could see his team play 21 Tests in 12 months.
CA has also been in talks for similar deals with the likes of Travis Head, who, alongside Cummins, was last year offered around $10 million to quit Australian cricket and take up franchise cricket full-time.
Cummins’ salary will jump by about $1 million per year, and amount to about $12 million over three years, if he signs the long-term deal. The Test captain came in at No.15 on a recent list of Australia’s top sports earners compiled by this masthead, with overall earnings of $9-10 million last year, including his commercial partnerships and Indian Premier League deals.
Head, who earned about $2.8 million from his Cricket Australia contract last year, is expected to be almost as handsomely rewarded as his captain over the next 12 months.
Test No.3 Marnus Labuschagne has also been offered a three-year contract, while all-rounder Cameron Green, despite his recent form struggles, will still be highly valued as a multi-format player. Green’s Cricket Australia retainer was worth less than $1.5 million last year.
The average Cricket Australia men’s retainer under the current memorandum of understanding is just above $1 million a year before match fees and superannuation.
According to three sources with knowledge of confidential discussions, Cummins’ deal will also feature more guaranteed money than previously, regardless of how much he plays. All contracted players receive a retainer that is bolstered by match fees and performance bonuses.
By the time the deal expires in 2029, Cummins will be 36 years old. He missed all but one Test of the Ashes summer due to a back injury.
CA and Cummins’ management declined to comment on the contract extension offer when contacted by this masthead, however the governing body’s head of cricket, James Allsopp, spoke broadly about priorities for the contract system.
“Absolutely,” Allsopp said when asked whether the top players were entitled to better remuneration and more security. “They’ve earned the right, they’ve been long-term performers for Australia across formats for a long period of time. There’s only so far you can take them under the current constraints. That’s definitely a priority at the moment.
“It is a really tricky balancing act. One thing we do know is that the market pressure is coming at the players who drive the most commercial value. Your multi-format players like Pat, Josh [Hazlewood] and Trav, there’s a lot of demand for those players. So ensuring they remain committed to Australian cricket is a really big priority.”
Australia have seven home Tests against Bangladesh, New Zealand and England this coming season, plus 13 Tests away to South Africa, India and England, plus the World Test Championship final should they qualify.
Allsopp also emphasised the need for competitive salaries for Sheffield Shield players and white-ball players in demand for the franchise circuit. But there appear to be few immediate prospects for Cummins to return to the Big Bash League following the collapse of discussions about selling stakes in all eight teams to private investors.
“We’ve prided ourselves for a long time on having the best high-performance system and domestic competitions in the world,” Allsopp said. “So to do that we need to make sure that players are incentivised to be multi-format players and strive to play for their country.
“But right now the market pressure is at the top. Our top players in the BBL are nowhere [near] compensated at the same level as our T20 competitors, so that’s something we’re really keen to address. The market pressure is coming for the top players, and we need to make sure those players continue to be committed to playing for Australia and the BBL.”
Since the collapse of BBL talks after New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia raised various queries about CA’s plans, players have raised numerous posers of their own about the landscape into the future.
One point of contention is the amount of money that has been spent on overseas players via the BBL draft since 2022. While David Warner and Steve Smith were able to negotiate individual deals to play for the Sydney Thunder and Sixers respectively, the large fees attracted by lower-profile overseas players has rankled.
Over the four BBL drafts held to date, platinum and gold-tier overseas players have raked in around $20 million combined, at a time when it has become conventional wisdom to spend the bulk of any T20 league salary cap on the best homegrown talent.
While Allsopp made it clear that there was still “plenty to play out” with the BBL, he had strong priorities to secure improved deals for the top Australian cricketers who draw television viewers and spectators to grounds.
“The two priorities, in my mind, are making sure multi-format players that drive a lot of commercial value, and also performance value for the team, are well looked after, and we can compete with those market forces, and then also our specialist white-ball players,” he said. “They’re in pretty high demand.
“There’s a world now, where they can jump on the franchise circuit and make a really good living away from Australian cricket, or even away from our BBL, and that’s not going to be in the best interests of Australian cricket.”
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.From our partners
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