Contract system in danger

By Ted Corbett

LONDON, MARCH 24. The new contract system which promises to pay England's cricketers up to 250,000 Pounds a year was in danger of collapse on Friday after it was revealed that none of the dozen players had signed their contracts.

They are objecting to two parts of the deal which is due to be in place by April 1 when they meet in Manchester to begin their preparations for the Test series against Zimbabwe in May. They complain that they will miss the win bonuses from their counties and that they receive nothing for the use of their names in sponsorship and advertising matter.

``They've got a cheek,'' said one official of the England and Wales Cricket Board. ``It is a generous offer and we expected them to sign immediately. Don't they realise that if Zimbabwe had made another 35 runs against the West Indies in Trinidad England would be bottom of the world league table.''

The trouble has been rumbling ever since the players were sent their contracts 10 days ago. At a meeting with senior ECB officials one grumbled that he was on so much money with his county that the Board's offer was miserly and another asked: ``Don't you realise that I have a family to feed.''

Most families in the first world would feed more than adequately on the money on offer. The top five players - Nasser Hussain, the captain, Mike Atherton, Alec Stewart, Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick - will certainly earn œ 150,000 if their six- month contract is extended for the tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka next winter; the other seven will get less but still manage to put oysters and champagne on the table from time to time. There is provision for much higher earnings.

Don't write them all off as greedy. One player returned to this country from holiday and, told of the impending revolt, said: ``They must be daft. This is a marvellous offer.'' Needless to say this player has spent time out of the game with injury and out of the England team because he lost form and seems determined to make the most of his return to Test cricket.

They may have underestimated the power of their opposition. At least some of the ECB chiefs are not entirely sure there is any need for a contract system and some of the county chairmen are angry that their players have been whipped away. Worcestershire complained that Graeme Hick, its captain for the season, had been unexpectedly given a contract and that its plans had been upset.

It is difficult not to symapthise that Hick will have to leave his county during warm weather training in Portugal to attend the meeting of contracted players on April 1 but as the counties unanimously voted in favour of the new system they must live with their own decision.

Some chairmen have said that if England players are returned to their counties at any time they will not be accommodated in the first team but made to play in the reserves. There is an air of resentment by counties which stand to benefit by œ 60,000 and which have acknowledged that they need money raised by the Test team to survive.

However, good old British compromise will soon be in place. Players and officials will meet on April 1 to discuss contracts; even though their agents Zone and their main negotiator, the quick bowler Dean Headley, have been talking to ECB men for two months. They may be told to take up the question of bonuses with their counties and offered further talks on the peripheral question of advertising, sponsorship and endorsements.

It is a different start to a summer which begins in two weeks and includes seven Tests, 11 one-day internationals and promises to be the busiest in history.

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