FICA Report Suggests 49% of Cricketers Are Ready To Give Up Central Contracts If They Get Paid More To Play In Domestic Leagues

The new report published by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) suggests that 49% of international cricketers are ready to give up their country’s central contracts if they get paid more to play in domestic T20 leagues.

India National Cricket Team players are not included in the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) survey as the Indian players’ body is not under the aegis of FICA.

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“49% would consider rejecting a central contract if they were paid more to play in domestic leagues,” as per 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 Report is based on analysis of significant research and draws on qualitative and quantitative surveying of more than 400 current professional and international players,” the FICA media release stated.

Three of the key trends highlighted in the Report include (as mentioned in the official FICA media release):

Acceleration of the shift towards hybrid and free agency employment status –

With 82% of the top 100 T20 players in the world 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 league’s 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 face opposition to forming or joining a players’ association and concerning recent examples of this are contrary to the rights that all players should be enjoying and which cricket’s leadership should be protecting.

54% still consider the 50 over World Cup as the pinnacle ICC event – FICA Report

According to the new FICA report, there has been a significant reduction in the percentage of cricketers who believe that the ICC ODI World Cup is the most important ICC event.

“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.

Notably, many cricket pundits have stated that ODI cricket is on a downfall and there has been a massive decline in the popularity of 50-over cricket in the last few years.

Another notable thing mentioned in the new FICA report is the prominent difference in international cricket exposure between the top 9 ranked ICC countries and the countries ranked between 10-20.

The report asserted that the average number of scheduled days of international cricket for countries ranked between 1-9 is 81.5 and for countries ranked between 10-20 the average number of days of scheduled international cricket is 21.5. Notably, in 2021, overall 485 international games were played.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan National Cricket Team wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan had the highest international cricket workload in 2021 with 80 calendar days.

Following him on the list is former England National Cricket Team captain Joe Root with 78 days of cricket and India National Cricket Team wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant with 75 days of cricket.

Meanwhile, the FICA report has segregated the existing employment scenario of cricketers into three different categories – Traditional market, Hybrid market, and Free Agency Market. The traditional market, which primarily comprises Indian players, has 18% cricketers. This bracket is for players having primary home domestic/international contracts.

In the Hybrid Market, which involves primary home domestic/international contracts as well as overseas domestic contracts there are 42% cricketers and in the Free Agency market, there are 40% cricketers.

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