Players who take their teams to the final of the Big Bash League will not be rewarded like they have been in previous years, "with a hefty prizemoney boost for this season to go exclusively to the franchises themselves," according to Barrett & Hogan of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD.
Cricket Australia agreed to triple the prizemoney on offer this season, which begins this week, to a total of A$890,000 ($644,700), "to offset the effect of cancelling the Champions League Twenty20 tournament," and raise the overall winners' prize to a total of A$450,000 ($325,800).
But an extra A$600,000 ($434,500) in the total prize pool this season "will be directed to the franchises and their state owners rather than to the players involved in successful teams themselves." It means the players "have far less to play for, at least in a financial sense, in this year's BBL." The two sets of players who reached the BBL final would previously have automatically shared in at least $250,000 "simply by qualifying for the lucrative event." That incentive "is not there any more after the Champions League was scrapped." The players' portion of the BBL prizemoney "remains the same as last year:" a total of A$290,000 ($210,000), with A$150,000 ($108,700) to the winners, A$60,000 ($43,450) to the runners-up, A$30,000 ($21,700) to the losing semifinalists and A$20,000 ($14,500) for fifth (SMH, 12/14).
