Australia's chair of selectors George Bailey says the decision of a group of senior players not to agree to their initial Cricket Australia (CA) contract offers is "normal at this time of year", while conceding "there is tension in the market place" as players try to manage national commitments and the lure of franchise cricket.
Bailey said he had empathy for Australia's best white-ball players who have become extremely frustrated at being paid between A$100-200,000 lower than overseas players to play in the BBL.
A group of five senior players were left unimpressed by CA's initial contract offers last week with the tension revolving around the monetary offers, how much of it is guaranteed against how much is from match payments, and whether the players would be given greater flexibility with NOCs to play franchise cricket at times that they either are told to rest or when franchise tournaments run concurrently with bilateral red- and white-ball cricket.
The debate is especially prescient this week as Bailey was speaking to announce three white-ball squads to tour Pakistan and Bangladesh in May and June, with Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc missing the entire nine-match tour despite currently playing in the IPL, while Travis Head, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett will miss the Pakistan ODIs due to the IPL before joining the squad in Bangladesh for three ODIs and three T20Is starting on June 9.
Bailey downplayed the tensions between the players that have rejected their initial contract offers and CA.
"I actually think that's pretty normal for this time of year," Bailey said on Monday. "I think one of the things that's important to understand is that we offer our national contracts up at the end of April, and the key reason for that is to unlock the state contracting process and allow states to go forward with certainty, knowing who they have on national contracts and then what space that allows and money that allows for their state players. But the actual contract doesn't kick in until end of June, first [week] of July.
"Agents are out spruiking, trying to get the best deal that they can for their for their clients, for their players, and I don't think that's been any different to any year. There's no doubt we acknowledge that there's a changing landscape. Players do have options. I think it's an exciting time to be a player and we're constantly trying to strike that balance."
"There's this tension in the marketplace, if you want to put it that way. But I think we're pretty fortunate. We've got a group of players that continue to be passionate about playing cricket for Australia, and I think they understand that performing well for Australia is still your best way to put yourself in the shop window for some of those franchise opportunities."
Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood missing the entire tour of Pakistan and Bangladesh will not go unnoticed by other CA-contracted players. However, those three have long been protected from bilateral white-ball tours to rest for Test cricket while also being allowed to play in the IPL during a stipulated rest period that is written into their national contracts.
Cummins himself noted in March that playing two Tests against Bangladesh in August this year means the multi-format players give up the chance to earn upwards of A$675,000 (US$485,000) to play in the Hundred, which the white-ball specialists will be able to play. There was a group of white-ball players - Tim David, Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa - who missed the Hundred last year to play T20I cricket for Australia, while Marcus Stoinis was allowed to go and was later picked in two bilateral series and the T20 World Cup when there were no competing franchise tournaments in order to qualify for a CA contract upgrade.
The money on offer in franchise tournaments has led players and agents to wonder whether going freelance, to avoid needing NOCs initially, and then qualifying for CA upgrades through playing the minimum number of games (three Tests or six white-ball games) is a better way to maximise earnings across the year. But Bailey warned about the cost of going freelance.
"[What] I'm always interested in is you potentially buy yourself flexibility, but you're probably on a year to year whim or a franchise tournament to tournament whim as to whether you're going to get selected," Bailey said. "You also run the risk, I think, of giving up that consistent training base, access to the resources that you need to actually help you perform around that as well, in terms of training facilities, coaches, strength and conditioning, gym programmes, physios, doctors, psychologists, all that sort of thing.
"It certainly probably depends too on the age of the player and where they're at in their career and what they're trying to achieve. But there's not a huge amount that I would say have made that shift and done it incredibly well. And I think if you start to look around the world, even at some of the countries where that's happened, we're starting to see some plans actually fall back into the into their national programs as well."
But Bailey was fully supportive of Australia's white-ball players, many of whom have been long-term stars of the BBL, expressing their frustration at the large pay disparity between them and overseas players in the BBL in recent years.
"I can empathise with some of our best white-ball players, and not only that, I think the guys that are probably marketed and help grow the Big Bash to where it is," Bailey said. "I can empathise with their position."