Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Former West Indies captain Gayle is demanding 250,000 dollars to play in the six-week KFC Twenty20 Big Bash tournament this season,after receiving 100,000 dollars from Western Australia last season.
Gayle,one of the most sought after Twenty20 players in the world because of his explosive batting,increased his price after Muttiah Muralitharan said he was seeking 150,000 dollars from one of the new Melbourne franchises.
The hefty demands are also inflating expectations of Australian players,and creating a nightmare for the eight new teams attempting to fit 18 players under their 1.2 million dollars salary cap.
State administrators around the country are furious that a maximum player payment of 150,000 dollars was not written into the new competition.
The payment was discussed at a meeting of state chief executives,but ignored by Cricket Australia,The Daily Telegraph reports.
Now,the chickens are coming home to roost. This is taking money away from local players and sending the wrong signal to young guys who may develop into Test players, one administrator said.
With teams such as new Sydney Thunder making no secret of their desire to partner Gayle with New South Wales dynamo David Warner,the outfit could blow upas much as one-third of the salary cap on just two players.
Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Paul Marsh said teams would be crazy to pay so much for Gayle.
