A LUCRATIVE SUMMER OF CRICKET

As a momentous summer of English cricket draws to a close, Alex Harvey has put together a short piece on the various revenue streams available to our national players.

ECB Contracts

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) award 3 different types of contract: test contracts for test players, white ball contracts for one-day players and increment contracts for new players breaking into the team. Players on central contracts (test and white ball) will have their entire salary paid by the ECB (as opposed to their counties). In return, the ECB can dictate the players’ availability and workload, particularly in relation to county cricket and Twenty20 leagues. Players on increment contracts will have a smaller ECB salary paid alongside their county deal.

Central contracts are awarded on an annual basis and are negotiated collectively by the Professional Cricketers' Association on behalf of the players. The ECB will shortly be announcing the list of centrally contracted players for 2019/20, with players such as Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer expected to be awarded both a test and white ball contract.

Test contracts for next year will reportedly be worth around £650,000, and white-ball contracts around £275,000. These figures have been bolstered by the ECB’s new £1.1 billion media rights deal with Sky Sports and the BBC. Players such as Archer and Stokes, who represent England in both test and one-day formats, will therefore pick up a basic wage from the ECB of around £925,000.

On top of their basic retainer, players also receive significant appearance fees - reportedly £15,000 per test match, £7,500 per ODI and £3,500 per T20. A player playing regularly in all three formats can therefore add upwards of £200,000 per year through appearance fees alone.

Twenty20 Leagues

The likes of Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer also attract lucrative deals from Twenty20 Leagues such as the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Australian Big Bash League (BBL). Archer reportedly has an £800,000 a year contract with the Rajasthan Royals, while Stokes was bought by the same IPL franchise for a staggering £1.38m.

The IPL is formally recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as a ‘global event’, meaning all international cricket is halted during April and May whilst the IPL takes place. Fixture clashes are therefore avoided and players can sign for IPL franchises without affecting their ECB central contracts.

Given the financial muscle of the IPL franchises in particular, players who are signed by an IPL team are able to significantly add to their ECB annual salaries, in some cases even doubling it.

Personal brand deals

Players can also earn significant sums through personal sponsorship and endorsement deals, taking advantage of their brand appeal. It was reported that Ben Stokes previously earned £200,000 a year from New Balance, whilst Jofra Archer currently has a deal with Adidas.

Off the back of the World Cup and Ashes series, both Archer and Stokes will have brands queuing up to partner with them. Social media activations are likely to be an attractive content strategy, and Archer may even decide to exploit his love of fortnite.