PCA declines pay cut offer

LONDON: LONDON: England’s centrally contracted players appear — at this stage — to have declined the offer to accept a temporary pay cut as part of the sport’s efforts to combat the challenges set by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, wrote to Tony Irish, his counterpart at the Professional Cricketers’ Association (the PCA; the players’ union who negotiate pay on behalf of centrally contracted players), on March 29 to broach the subject. Cricinfo has a copy of this letter.

In the letter, Harrison revealed that he personally would be taking a 25% pay cut “for at least three months” as the ECB “confronted… the biggest challenge the sport has known in the modern era.” It is understood that other ECB executives have volunteered a 20% pay cut and some staff will be informed on Wednesday morning of a decision to furlough them.

It is unclear how much direct input the players had on the decision, although writing on Twitter, Ben Stokes responded with fury at the suggestion that England’s centrally contracted players had personally turned down the request.

While there were some exchanges between the PCA and the players on Whatsapp groups, the PCA stance has remained that pay cuts should only be seen as a last resort.