Cricket Australia has "dangled multi-year contracts before the country's top handful of stars in an effort to convince them to forgo the riches of the Indian Premier League for the next three years," according to Chris Barrett of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Test captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and fast bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins were "contacted individually in recent weeks with verbal offers of three-year deals rather than standard one-year central contracts on the condition that they sit out the IPL." CA Exec GM of Team Performance Pat Howard made the approaches, which have come with the governing body and the Australian Cricketers' Association "still in dispute over a new pay deal for players." The offers were met with a "lukewarm response" from the players. The terms of the multi-year deals discussed informally with Howard were regarded by the players as "underwhelming, with the only perceived incentive for them missing the IPL being the security of a three-year contract." Smith and Warner, who captain their IPL franchises, collect more than A$1M ($737,400) per year for the Twenty20 tournament and "their earning capacity there is set to rise sharply with a bumper new IPL broadcast deal tipped to see the event's player payment pool double." Warner's retainer with CA is estimated to be worth A$2M ($1.47M) but he could "conceivably" earn as much as A$10M ($7.37M) in the IPL alone over the next three years (SMH, 5/11).
