Australian Cricket Continues To Die

(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Is there an element of history repeating, when Australia lost to England in a Twenty20 match before falling apart to Bangladesh in 2005?

But it is the administration that causes the real concern.

Late last year, Tim Neilson received a contract extension.  This was ushered at the same time Australia were beginning to look like anything but the No. 1 cricket nation in the world.  This decision made no real business sense.

In a world of results, this reeked of poor business.

And now, we see the Australian cricket players prospective earnings jump to huge levels, thought by most to be staving off the threat of independent cricket such as IPL.

In an era—and a first for many years—where Australian players are far from the dominators we have come to expect, they are on the cusp of earning, at the highest level, as much as $2 million.

The overall player payment pool is estimated to rise to an astonishing AUD$96.2 million over the next two years, a jump of nearly 14 percent.  Players will be remunerated for Cricket Australia sponsorship work, and the top six players will receive fixed contracts with all monies for match payments paid out in advance in full.

So the earning power of the elite players of Australian cricket would not be affected by rotational or resting policies.

But is there a player who we could really call an elite cricketer in Australian cricket at this time?

Even the twin pillars of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke are looking remarkable fallible at the moment.  Ironically, as CA move to protect their prize players, should not these men playing extra cricket in leagues such as the IPL make them better players?

No doubt these top Australians looked out of their depth in Twenty/20 whereas IPL veterans in the competition looked battle hardened.

News has also come to light that former Australian coach John Buchanan will be joining up to spend a week coaching England, with his link up scheduled to be just prior to the first Ashes test in Cardiff.  There is a speculation that he will be offered something more permanent with the ECB.

Not the first time Australian intellectual property has been taken by the old enemy.

Is it the fraying edges of Australian cricket behind the scenes that is causing so much damage to their once all powerful side?

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