Australia's "most prized cricketers have been offered multi-year deals in an urgent shake-up of Cricket Australia's contracting system brought on by fears of a raid on its players by rebel suitors." Cricket Australia's 19 centrally contracted players for the '15-16 contract period were last week "told of their retainer and their ranking, with captain-in-waiting and Allan Border Medal winner Steve Smith predictably rising" to the top of the charts on a retainer of more than A$2M ($1.62M) a year. There is a new flavor to the contracting period "with up to a dozen two-year offers -- rather than what has become the standard one-year contract -- going out in direct response to the emergence of Indian media giant Essel Group and its plans to poach players for a new, anti-establishment cricket body" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 5/13). ... Graham Smith, a former legal adviser to the Australian Football League Players Association, has accused the
World Anti-Doping Agency of orchestrating a "witch hunt" against the "Essendon 34" and has questioned why the AFL should "remain under the
anti-doping code." As the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed
WADA had requested it to find "that each of the players be found to have
committed an anti-doping rule violation, and that an 'appropriate
sanction' be imposed," Smith said that it was "bewildering that the case against the Bombers had been reactivated" (SMH, 5/13). ... Lithuanian Basketball Federation (LBF) President Arvydas Sabonis has hailed his country's decision to cooperate on a range of issues with its counterparts from the French Basketball Federation (FFBB). The two national federations also discussed a variety of other issues relating to the sport, including the role of basketball agents, which is strictly regulated by national legislation in France (FIBA).
