McGrath expecting a pay cut

Glenn McGrath is expecting a pay cut after taking time off to support his wife during her battle with cancer in Cricket Australia's list of its 25 contracted players for the 2006-07 international season. The season is an important one, in which Australia will attempt first to regain the Ashes at home and then retain the World Cup in the West Indies soon after. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that McGrath's management team was certain the 36-year-old would slide down the rankings list, having missed Australia's recent tours of South Africa and Bangladesh due to his wife's illness.

Despite another consistent international year - 43 wickets in 10 Tests, and 16 wickets in 16 ODIs - by the time McGrath is back his absence from the national side will have stretched to ten months. That absence, believes McGrath, is likely to result in a drop down Australia's rankings and a pay cut.

Warren Craig, McGrath's manager, while confirming the player intends to return to international duties for Australia's next fixture, a triangular one-day series in Pakistan leading into the Champions Trophy, acknowledged that Stuart Clark's emergence during the South Africa tour and Brett Lee's good form may leave his client with a reduced role over the coming year.

"Glenn isn't expecting to hold his existing place on the list," Craig told The Sydney Morning Herald. "He was fairly high last year and he is realistic about things this time around. We will meet with Cricket Australia and find out officially where he is in the next couple of weeks. But he is expecting to slip a bit, just hopefully not too much."

The biggest beneficiaries, the paper reported, are likely to be Michael Hussey and Brett Lee, on the back of exceptional performances over the last season. Hussey, in particular, has had a phenomenal season; since making his Test debut he has scored 1139 runs at 75.93 in 11 matches and also played 35 of his 40 one-day internationals over the past year. Lee's return to the Test arena after an 18-month absence, has seen him transformed into Australia's spearhead. In 17 Tests, he has taken 72 wickets and his ODI performances have been impressive as usual, claiming 51 wickets at 25.29 from 31 appearances.

Mick Lewis, Cameron White and James Hopes have not been so lucky and have been taken off the contracts list entirely, while Clark, Phil Jaques and Mitchell Johnson have been offered full contracts for the first time. Mark Cosgrove and Brett Dorey also miss out on a contract. Jaques, soon to be married, was pleased to learn of his contract though he was realistic about his immediate chances. "I am behind Australia's best opening partnership of all time, so I have to bide my time for opportunities to come up. It would be a dream come true to play a revenge Ashes series this summer."

Cricket Australia will inform all players of their ranking and earnings over the next fortnight. Michael Brown, operations manager, did reveal that the base contract would increase from $145,000 to $150,000, while match payments of $12,250 for Tests and $4900 for one-day internationals would not change. The top contract, for the likes of Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist, and the entire payment pool would remain confidential.