49% international cricketers ready to leave country’s central contracts if they are paid more to play in T20 leagues: FICA report | Cricket News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) has come up with a shocking revelation in its annual report with the majority of international cricketers rejecting their respective country’s central contracts to play in the T20 leagues globally.
The survey doesn’t include the Indian cricketers as the Indian players’ body is not under the aegis of FICA.
“49% would consider rejecting a central contract if they were paid more to play in domestic leagues,” according to the latest FICA report.

“The report is the most substantial piece of research conducted with players on a global scale and is intended to provide an evidence based analysis of the global game and player employment market, as the game evolves at a rapid pace,” the FICA release stated.
Three of the key trends highlighted in the report:
Acceleration of the shift towards hybrid and free agency employment status: With 82% of the top 100 T20 players in the world now holding an overseas domestic league contract in addition to their home contract, or being exclusively employed in domestic leagues. This is driven by push and pull factors such as the ability for players to earn more in domestic leagues on a time / wage basis than in international cricket in most countries, unsustainable scheduling and scheduling overlap.
Acceleration of private ownership, including common franchise ownership across domestic leagues: Creating new opportunities whilst disrupting traditional models. The continued growth of the domestic leagues landscape, alongside recent increases in the volume of scheduled ICC Events and bilateral international cricket, without a clear global scheduling framework, continues to raise significant questions of sustainability.
Ongoing denial of players’ right to organise: With 13% of players facing opposition to forming or joining a players’ association and concerning recent examples of this contrary to the rights that all players should be enjoying and which cricket’s leadership should be protecting.
There is a growing debate that 50-over cricket is fast losing its relevance and the survey suggests that there is a marked dip in the percentage of cricketers who still think that the ODI World Cup is the most important event in the ICC calendar.
“54% still consider the 50 over World Cup as the pinnacle ICC event, although this has reduced significantly from 86% in the 2018/19 FICA survey,” the report stated.
“Player decisions continue to impact the direction of the game, and an understanding of these, and of the global employment market, should be a prerequisite to ensuring good decisions are made by the game’s leadership,” FICA CEO, Tom Moffat said.
‘Vast difference in international cricket exposure’
The report stated that countries ranked between 1-9 in ICC list played 81.5 days of international cricket in 2021 while countries ranked between 10-20 played an average of 21.5 days.
There were 485 international fixtures in 2021 alone, 195 more than the 290 that happened in 2020 due to COVID-19 but still significantly lesser than 522 games that took place around the globe in 2019.
Mohammed Rizwan with 80 calendar days in 2021 had the highest international cricket workload while Rishabh Pant with 75 days is highest amongst Indians. In between, there is Joe Root with 78 days of cricket in 2021.
The FICA, in its report, has segregated the current employment scenario of cricketers into three distinct categories — Traditional market, Hybrid market, Free Agency Market.
The division of percentage is 18% in the traditional market which is about players having primary home domestic/international contracts. The Hybrid Market, which involves primary home domestic/international contract as well as overseas domestic contract (T20 leagues, county), has 42% cricketers while the most alarming rate of increase is the Free Agency market which constitutes 40 per cent.
Free Agency market solely involves multiple home and overseas domestic contracts (own country’s T20 league as well as other T20 leagues across globe).
Interestingly, the inference drawn from the trend is that the traditional market only constitutes Indian players as they are not allowed to play overseas T20 leagues.
(With inputs from PTI)