By Chris Barrett
Cricket Australia's promotion of next summer's Ashes could be jeopardised, leading players having a filmed an advertisement for the series that stands to be shelved unless a truce can be reached to settle the continuing industrial dispute with the governing body.
The subject of cricket's image rights to the likes of Steve Smith, David Warner and Mitchell Starc is an intriguing sub-plot to the standoff between CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association over the troubled negotiations for a new five-year pay agreement.
Return the urn: Steve Smith's Australia will look to reclaim the Ashes, which they won under Michael Clarke in 2013/14, next summer.Credit: Mark Kolbe
Test captain Smith and other top players agreed to film an Ashes marketing campaign last October promoting the blockbuster home series against England and received marketing payment "points" for it. However, their participation was on the proviso that the footage can only be used beyond June 30 – when the current deal expires – if a new memorandum of understanding has been struck.
As it stands that appears a distant possibility, with the ACA balking at the terms of CA's financial offer delivered last week.
If the two parties cannot reach mutual ground by the end of June and new contracts are not signed then Smith and co would effectively become free agents, a scenario that would not only leave the game in limbo but could impact on cricket's marketing and commercial arms as they would no longer have image rights to the players.
There are further looming complications. CA's new alcohol partner, Lion, has asked for permission to shoot an ad in with players not involved in the Indian Premier League so they can use the pictures on cartons of XXXX Gold. Players will agree but, like the Ashes campaign, provided the use of the images beyond June 30 subject to a new MOU being signed.
Hot on the heels of Australia's stoic performance in a 2-1 Test series defeat in India, the men's central contract list for 2017/18 will be finalised in April but individual contracts will remain unsigned while the pay dispute rolls on.
Despite CA declaring player payments would rise 35 per cent, the ACA is refusing to accept its 29-page financial offer on a range of grounds. The principal objection is over the body's move to walk away from the fixed revenue-share model around which previous contracts have been based for all but international players.
There is concern that even those elite players will not retain a guaranteed percentage of revenue. CA has proposed instead that they and international women receive a 17.5 per cent of "international cricket financial surpluses" up to a cap of $20 million "above the level required to fund player payments for the next five years". Eighty per cent of such a cut of surpluses would go to the men and 20 per cent to women.
The players' union is also aghast at a proposal that half of a $58.5m pool owed to players called the "adjustment ledger" – which corrects swings in revenue from earlier projections – be carried over to fund future pay rises under a new MOU rather than be paid out under the current deal. They claim this in particular short changes cricketers including former Australian stars who played after 2012 but have since retired or are not contracted.
CA counters that this has been done before, saying that $16.8m was carried over from the previous deal in 2011/12 to contribute to player payments over the past five years.