Via The Australian:
Throughout their long and bitter pay dispute, Australia’s cricketers kept telling us it wasn’t about the money. It is just as well.
If the past four days under a hot Dhaka sun have told us anything, it’s that money is a poor measure of a cricketer’s worth.
The hapless 11 who yesterday became the first Australian team to lose a Test to Bangladesh will be paid an average of $1.36 million from Cricket Australia this financial year, or about $26,000 a week. The team that humiliated them on a turning pitch are paid average salaries of just $26,136, or about $500 a week. Two players aren’t even contracted by the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
After so many months of industrial haggle and bluff, our cricketers got what they wanted from the negotiating table: a continuation of the revenue sharing model that has made them the highest paid sporting team in the nation. They remain on a wicket far better than the dusty strip that befuddled them in Dhaka, where world cricket’s paupers beat the princes by 20 priceless runs. Searching questions will be asked about Australia’s preparation and mindset for this Test series; a series the players threatened to boycott unless Cricket Australia met their pay demands.
I had a lifelong love affair with cricket.
Played it well. Was a rock solid Number 3 and passionate about it. I once punched a paceman that beamered me.
I watched it. Even in the wee small hours. Will never forget when the Waugh brothers finally overturned decades of suffering at the hands of Windies in the Carribean.
Now I couldn’t give a stuff. It’s Super League all over again. Commerce devouring culture.
Congratulations to our jewel-encrusted cricketing rentiers.
