South African cricketers get into record deal with board
The South African cricketers had a reason to rejoice today as the South African cricket board announced much-improved remunerations for them. The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 Cricketers' Association (SACA), which is a players’ body and the South African board have got into a deal along with the six franchises which will ensure that 20% of the earnings will be handed over to the cricketers. So far, the South African players had a fixed pay based on the grade that they belonged to in their contract.
The parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding which addresses issues related to player contracts, player commercial programmes, games’ scheduling guidelines and guidelines related to releasing the players for the IPL for all the professional cricketers in the country. Kolpak deals have caused grief amongst teams and the board and the issue has been addressed.
According to the CEO of SACA, Tony Irish, the players association’s role was to ensure that the players are given an equal say in the matters associated with the cricket, whether on or off the field. He added, "The MOU ensures that out of every 100 rand made by Cricket South Africa approximately 20 rand goes to the players.”
The president of SACA, and former South African cricketer, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Boeta-Dippenaar-c1178, concurred with Irish and said that in the past, the South African cricketers had barely any say in the processes that were associated with South African cricket. According to him, this contract will improve things in that regard. He also added that it was vital that the players were heard as well, given that they played the game and knew all about the issues associated with it. Dippenaar played in 38 Test matches and 107 ODIs, before retiring from international cricket and choosing to focus on domestic cricket and his own businesses.
South African captain Graeme Smith was a happy man too. He called it one of the “most thorough and powerful agreements” that any country’s players had with their cricket board. He added that the contract covers many aspects of the game like the having overseas players, allowing Kolpak players, IPL releases, medical aid and pension, apart from some of the others. Smith is no longer the captain of the T20 version of the game, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173 having taken over that role.
The CEO of the South African cricket board, Gerald Majola was also supportive of the agreement and said that the contract added another dimension to the relationship between the board, SACA and the franchises.
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