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Australian Cricketers’ Association boss Paul Marsh believes more players could follow Andrew Flintoff’s lead into freelance status unless boards offer less restrictive contracts.
Flintoff recently rejected a contract from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) so he could instead compete in various Twenty20 competitions around the world without being bound to his country.
The England allrounder’s decision has come under heavy criticism from those who feel he has put Indian Premier League dollars ahead of his country.
But Marsh, the ACA chief executive, said other players could take the same path Flintoff had unless the sport addressed fundamental issues.
In a column for Cricinfo, Marsh wrote it was important cricket reduced the number of meaningless international fixtures and made central contracts less restrictive on earning money from other sources.
“Why would Flintoff sign a STG25,000 ($A46,000) contract with the ECB and have to agree to a number of significant obligations and restrictions when he can sign a six-week IPL contract for 35 times the value of his ECB contract amount – an option that allows him to sign various other cricket contracts throughout the world?” Marsh wrote.
“Similar dilemmas have arisen with Sri Lankan, New Zealand and West Indies players, where the value of IPL contracts dwarfs anything these respective boards can offer.
“It’s only a matter of time before players from all countries are faced with similar issues.”
Marsh acknowledged Australia’s players had benefitted better than their international counterparts with the contract system they had with Cricket Australia.
“Nonetheless, with the advent of the IPL, cricket’s landscape has changed forever,” he wrote.
“Boards can no longer expect players to sign contracts that prevent them from earning hundreds of thousands of dollars simply because it is their patriotic duty.”
Andrew Symonds appears another destined to become a free agent after having his CA contract torn up this year following his discipline problems.
But International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat was confident the circumstances surrounding the likes of Flintoff and Symonds were “the exception more than the rule”, and that players would put country before cash.
“Having said that, I think we need to be conscious and mindful of developments … (but) I don’t believe it’s (freelance) going to come the norm,” he said.
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