File image of Adam Gilchrist
Former Australia captain Mark Taylor and wicket-keeping great Adam Gilchrist feel that Australia cricket team players will be incurring a pay cut as the sport bear the pressure of financial crisis owing to the novel coronavirus.
It was only last week that Cricket Australia had furloughed 80 per cent of their staff until end of the financial year, implying that they will be on just 20 per cent of the staff members until June 30. Reports later revealed that CA Chief Executive Kevin Roberts has informed the staff members that with the financial crisis coming, the organisation won't be able to pay the bills by August, making layoffs inevitable. Gilchrist now feels players are next.
“Without being aware of any numbers and the financial side of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if we go back a decade or two to the level of payment that players get. Even maybe further for a while,” Gilchrist told ABC Grandstand on Sunday.
“It’s going to get stripped back, right back. Support staff numbers have to get dragged back.
“The revenue is going to go down significantly, 50% they are banking on at the moment and that’s an optimistic position, I believe. The players will take a whack.”
Besides international fixtures getting postponed, even the Indian Premier League, where many Aussies had managed to get a lucrative deal, was postponed indefinitely by BCCI last week until further notice.
“There will be haircuts, as we’ve seen from CA staff. Players will be next,” Taylor, a former member of the CA board, said on the Nine Network.
“I also suspect that Cricket Australia and the ACA (Australian Cricketers’ Association) have been working together on this. I hope they get their heads together and sort out a good solution for the near future.”
