For the vast majority of SA’s professional cricketers a national contract remains the holy grail at the end of every year’s hard toil.
It doesn’t just provide a decent wage, but peace of mind, a share in the players’ provident fund, extensive medical aid and an extra payment at the end of the year for the sale of image rights and a share of the win bonuses.
Professionalism is still so new to the women’s game that any national contract is still welcomed as an opportunity to focus on playing and training in a way that was impossible just five years ago.
But in the men’s game there is an increasing number of players for whom a national contract is not just unnecessary, but undesirable. And they will only become more.
Two decades ago national bodies around the world introduced contracts primarily to control their most valuable assets and to ensure they were available to play as and when required and didn’t have to worry (too much) about paying the household and medical bills.
A decade later there was an element of “reward” introduced to the contracts, a way to thank loyal and long-serving national players — as well as an element of “control”, which was still seen as vital to administrative boards around the world.
Either way, international cricket — bilateral or ICC events — was still the only significant stage on which players could perform to enhance their worth and earning potential.
During the last decade, however, that has changed exponentially. First by salaries at the Indian Premier League (IPL) and other leagues increasing and senior players becoming so wealthy that national contracts have become financially irrelevant.
Senior players such as David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen would barely notice whether their national contracts were even paid. Which is, of course, why they have financial managers.
Klaasen’s current contract with the Sunrisers Hyderabad is worth close to R50m a year. Subtract taxes and commissions and no doubt that plummets to a little less than R40m.
With Cricket SA national contracts ranging between R1.5m and R4.5m, it is not hard to understand that a contract would be important to Klaasen for reasons other than money. If at all.
Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortjé played for the Proteas at the 2024 T20 World Cup without a contract of any sort.
In the most recent batch of 18 men’s contracts announced last week, David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen were confirmed to have signed “hybrid” contracts in which they agree to be available for “some” bilateral series and all ICC events — if selected.
Talks about the immediate international future of Klaasen were said to be ongoing, which helps neither Cricket SA nor the cricketer.
Perhaps many Proteas followers and fans of Klaasen don’t care whether he signs a contract or not, but certainly some do. The failure to reach an agreement reflects poorly on both Cricket SA and Klaasen. It can’t be about money, so what could it be?
The relationship between any employee and their boss is important, but it becomes vital when the employer needs the staff more than the staff need the job. Cricket SA is trying harder than in the past to satisfy their best players, but the “little” things become more important when the big things — like salary — don’t matter.
It has long been a condition of Cricket SA national contracts that all cricketers on their retained list must attend the annual awards dinner.
A couple of years ago it meant a number of players having to make the arduous journey from the Caribbean Premier League in Barbados to Joburg for what can be an awkward evening wearing their Proteas blazers while doing some protracted “hanging around”. And losing out on as much as R300,000 for every game they missed in the Caribbean.
The second reason the dynamic between boards and players has changed so profoundly is that the stage provided by international cricket is no longer the sole one on which they can attract high-paying, alternative employers.
Kwena Maphaka and Lhuan-dre Pretorius are perfectly capable of becoming very wealthy young men without playing for the Proteas. Dewald Brevis has already done it.
IPL franchises are all determined to sign players who are younger by the year. Their scouts spend much of their time watching under-19 tournaments and even school players, long before they are even close to a national contract radar.
The England Cricket Board has the money to pay Ben Stokes £3m a year to forego the IPL and focus all of his passion and money on Test cricket.
Fortunately, that is what he wants to do anyway. But Cricket SA does not have anything like that sort of cash, which means, apart from money and medical aid, its contracts need to be built around trust and good will.
Increasingly, it is the best players who hold the best cards at the table.
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