In his maiden participation in an MCC world cricket committee meeting, which was also the first time that a Bangladesh player was part of cricket's elite think-tank, Shakib Al Hasan sparked a conversation about the disparities in player wages across the 10 current Test-playing nations.
In a two-day meeting held in Sydney on January 9 and 10, the committee has declared that cricket's governing bodies must move quickly to close the wage gap in the international game or risk a mass exodus to domestic Twenty20 leagues. It also discussed the fact that underpaid players will be more susceptible to the lure of corrupt approaches from would-be spot-fixers.
According to a report in ESPNCricinfo, the contrasting examples of the Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow was used to highlight the vast discrepancies in player wages around the world.
Shakib told his fellow committee members, which features the likes of Ricky Ponting, Brendon McCullum and Kumar Sangakkara, that numerous younger Bangladesh players were no longer viewing Test cricket as their goal due to the greater financial security afforded them by T20.
"We'd love to see the ICC get more involved in making sure the money goes where it should go - to players," Ponting said. "It's also about understanding that domestic T20 tournaments are giving players almost an easy out to not represent their country and be remunerated in a better way to play those domestic tournaments.
“The IPL is a big, powerful beast that has probably been the contributing factor to other T20 tournaments around the world. You can't blame players for playing in tournaments like that, some of the countries we're talking about and the dollars guys are on to go and play in the IPL versus play the whole year for their countries is chalk and cheese.
“That's where it's important to ensure some of these payments even up somewhere. You don't see English or Australian players not representing their countries to play the IPL, and that's because they're remunerated well. So it's about making sure we have the best players playing Test cricket for the majority of the year and also getting them on long-term national contracts as well, so [there's not] the temptation to go and play to have some security for the back part of their lives.”
While saying that some of the money is going to the right places in Bangladesh, Shakib saw room for improvement.
"Shakib spoke about coming from Bangladesh and some of the issues and dramas they've had over the years but he also spoke about the ICC needing to take control of where the money goes because he knows a lot of money is going to the right place but it's not getting through to the players the way it probably should," Ponting added.
The meeting also recommended an improvement in wages in the women's game and also the creation of international windows for the Women's Big Bash League and the English T20 Super League so that players do not have to choose between their national side and the T20 leagues.
Players on the committee also expressed the belief that more should be done to utilise the world's players associations as links between cricketers and the efforts of governing bodies to reduce the risks of corrupt activity around the game. It also urged the need to educate young cricketers on the dangers of corruption so that they are prepared to turn down and report approaches from those who target supposedly susceptible youngsters.
