Australia players move to take back image rights

SYDNEY: Australian cricketers on Wednesday unveiled plans to take back their own image rights, firing the latest salvo in an ongoing pay battle with the country’s cricket board.

It is the latest power play in an increasingly bitter stand-off between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association over a plan to scrap revenue-sharing.

With no end in sight to the impasse and the current deal expiring on June 30, the ACA disclosed plans to form a new business to help male and female players directly negotiate sponsorship deals.

Establishing “The Cricketers’ Brand”, designed to manage and commercialise player’s intellectual property rights, was necessary due to “the uncertainty of all parties regarding IP matters should the players be unemployed post June 30”.

“When players are threatened with unemployment and when they learn they receive zero percent of the digital revenue they generate they are naturally concerned,” said ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson.

“The Cricketers’ Brand has been established to better manage these concerns and those of all affected parties.”

To be launched on July 1, it would see all media, advertising and promotional deals controlled by the ACA, not CA as they currently are.