LONDON: England’s cricket players must “understand the bigger picture” and will be relied upon to accept a decrease in salary as the nation’s cricket administering body (ECB) attempts to manage the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
In excess of 662,700 individuals have been contaminated by the novel coronavirus over the world and 30,751 have died, and the episode has cancelled all sports events around the globe.
England’s Sri Lanka tour was dropped recently and the ECB declared no professional cricket will be played until May’s end.
England’s home Test series against West Indies and Pakistan and limited overs series with Australia from June to August are also at risk of being postponed or cancelled. This will be if the situation does not gets better.
“There’s a conventional procedure to proceed with centrally contracted players however the game needs to pull together at this time. We believe the players realise the bigger picture.”
English players on central contracts have their salaries paid in full by the board. The board awarded 10 Test contracts and 12 white-ball contracts in September last year.
The Times revealed players, for example, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler — who play for England in every one of the three formats — are expected to take pay cuts of around 200,000 pounds ($249,040) during the three-month shutdown.
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