A similar scenario awaits during the two-test component of the Sri Lankan tour, starting next month.
Selectors rank players based on their perceived value in Test, One Day and Twenty20 internationals, with players who compete in all three formats considered the most valuable.
Cricket Australia’s Top Earners
- Pat Cummins: $1.8 million*
- Josh Hazlewood: $1.6 million
- David Warner: $1.5 million
- Mitchell Starc $1.4 million
- Steve Smith $1.3 million
- Marnus Labuschagne $1.2 million
- Nathan Lyons $1.1 million
$17 million payout pool for 20 contracted players
Minimum contract: $316,000
Marketing pool $50,000 to $400,000
Matching payments:
Essays: $18,000
ODI: $7,000
T20: $5,500
Foreign visits: 40% bonus on match fees
*Captain’s Bonus $200,000
Over the past year, Hazlewood has emerged as one of Australia’s leading T20 players. While his ranking on the International Cricket Council Bowling Test Table has fallen to 10th after his injury-plagued summer, he is ranked third by the ICC as a one-day bowler and T20.
Australia are the highest-ranked Test nation and have four ICC top-10 batsmen, Labuschagne (1), Smith (2), Usman Khawaja (7) and Travis Head (9), while Cummins is the best bowler.
Last year, the top five players in the Cricket Australia rankings were Cummins, followed by Smith, Warner, Starc and Hazlewood.
National coaches rank players on a range of metrics, including their performance over the past 12 months, but also their selection prospects for the next 12 months, which can vary wildly depending on the tours and tournaments on the schedule.
Josh Hazlewood moves up to No. 2 on the top earners list.Credit:Getty
Next year for Australian cricket will include Test tours of Sri Lanka, India and England, home Tests against the West Indies and South Africa, and a home Twenty20 World Cup in October and November. .
The top few spots in the CA contract rankings have remained remarkably constant since 2016, after the retirements of Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson all happened in the span of a few months.
That is of course with the exception of the 2018-19 roster when Smith and Warner were banned for their roles in the Newlands scandal.
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Indeed, this move by the CA Board of Directors saw Cummins go from somewhere in the top 10 to an unassailable position as the team’s most valuable bowling asset and all-format cricketer.
Smith and Warner resumed a high ranking when they returned to the squad for the 2019 World Cup and Ashes double tour in England.
Alongside Starc and Hazlewood, they formed an NSW core that at times frustrated other players’ efforts to climb a list drawn up by national selectors.
Certainly, Labuschagne’s claims for a higher roost have been bolstered by his addition to white ball teams since 2020.
What has remained more or less constant since the 2011 Argus review of Australian cricket is that Test players earn higher pay, reflecting the primacy of the format in the eyes of CA. Although rarely playing limited overs matches, Lyon have always held a place in the top 10.
Meanwhile, white ball specialists — like captain Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Adam Zampa and Marcus Stoinis — can boost their pay with Big Bash League deals worth up to $200,000 per season.
CA, meanwhile, has confirmed the appointments of Dan Vettori and Andrew Borovec as assistant coaches to Andrew McDonald, with Clint McKay also among the support staff for the multi-format Sri Lanka tour.
The men’s team also has a new psychologist, Mary Spillane, replacing Michael Lloyd, a longtime member of the touring team and an especially vital source of support following the death of Phillip Hughes in 2014.
