Players chase share of new revenue streams

Players will be chasing a slice of Cricket Australia's digital revenue, arguing the content could not exist without them, when negotiations for a new payment memorandum of understanding (MOU) formally begin in Melbourne on Friday.

Ahead of talks that are set to be among the most willing since the threat of a player strike, in 1997, led to the creation of the Australian Cricketers' Association, ESPNcricinfo has learned that the players union will be seeking a more expansive definition of Australian Cricket Revenue (ACR), the pool of money from which the players' fixed revenue percentage of around 25% is drawn.

The last MOU, negotiated in 2012, predated CA's current broadcast rights deals, which included a substantial digital component for the first time. Lavish funds have been spent on the project, including the CA website, a subscription-based mobile app and extensive live streaming services. Yet the players, whose cricket the project covers, only have access to the money brought in by television deals, not their digital equivalents.

While the players have been happy to help the project get off the ground over the past three summers, there is an eagerness now to "future-proof" the next MOU so new sources of revenue are not excluded from ACR. Though the cricketers' pay model is the envy of the Australian sporting world, the ACA argues that the players actually get less than a fifth of all money in the game, termed Total Cricket Revenue.

There has already been some furious spin on both sides of the argument, which will be led on the players' side by the ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson and on CA's by the senior executive and former board director Kevin Roberts. While CA has said little about the looming talks, even to the point of refusing to guarantee the retention of the fixed revenue percentage model, Nicholson moved onto the front foot on Thursday.

"It's important that the facts are known because they paint a very different picture to that suggested," Nicholson said. "Most think that the players are getting a bigger and bigger slice of the cricket pie. This is wrong. The opposite is actually true. And this is despite the fact that it is the players who have helped grow the game to make it what it is.

"For the last 20 years, Cricket Australia and the players have worked together as genuine partners in the growth of the game, and the game in Australia has never been stronger. To suggest that players try harder or perform better due to the size of their contracts is not only wrong, but doesn't respect the work that the players put in.

"In reality, the players know more than anyone that they need to continue to fight to be the best in world cricket, and every time they pull on the Australian cap, they do so with immense pride and respect. The players have outlined their priorities including ongoing investment in grassroots cricket and a greater say on scheduling. This, along with including all cricketers, male and female in the one MOU, provides cricket with a fantastic opportunity to grow in the right way."