Past Australian cricketers have been left disillusioned by the scrapping of hospitality functions traditionally held at men’s home Test matches, replaced by the offer of a ticket and a $30 food and drink voucher.
At a time of considerable friction between past players, the current team and cricket administrators more generally, the decision of the Australian Cricketers’ Association to downgrade the former cricketers’ invitations to Test matches has been poorly received.
The victorious Australian Ashes touring team of 1989 during a ticker-tape parade in Sydney.Credit:Craig Golding
International and state players are used to being invited as ACA life members to a function at their home Test match each summer, customarily capped at 50 attendees, where past playing generations can catch up, sit back and watch the current team.
So, there was understandable angst when informed earlier this month that invitations to the Tests in Perth this week and Adelaide next week against West Indies, then Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney against South Africa, would now only get them a ticket in the stands and a voucher.
As part of the invitation, players are asked which other players they would like to sit with, underlining the difference between a grandstand seat and a function room in which to move around.
“It’s a slap to past players,” one former Australian cricketer told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “Come if you want to, but we don’t really care – that’s the message I take from it.”
Take up for the tickets and voucher offer has been minimal so far, as past player groups discuss whether attending would be seen as acceptance of the change.
There is less unease about the amount of money being invested into past player welfare than there is about the lack of courtesy shown to the former cricketers that helped create the platform on which the present team lives so well, thanks to a succession of ever-richer pay deals, the next of which will be signed in 2023. Past players, they argue, helped to build the current pie.
The ACA’s argument in response is that attendances for these functions have been dwindling despite their considerable cost to the organisation, and that past players will additionally be invited not only to attend a day’s Test cricket but also to a hospitality function at a Sheffield Shield game, where they will also be asked to put their views to the association.
“The benefit of this event is that it will provide a greater opportunity for us to connect with our past players, listen to their views about the game, and talk with them about the programs and services available,” ACA chief executive Todd Greenberg told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “Whether that’s support around their wellbeing, health check days, or even the opportunity to be paid to go back and coach at a local cricket club through our Game Development Grants.”
The association commits thousands of dollars each year to support past players, from the provision of an annual fund of $500 for every player to cover various expenses, the coverage of medical bills, and offer of welfare and hardship support for anyone in need.
Nevertheless, the sense of disenfranchisement among the past player group is strong, and adds to what is already a fractured landscape.
That is contributing to a public conversation flavoured largely by anger and misunderstanding between players of different generations, focused around the saga of Justin Langer’s exit as Australian men’s head coach this year.
Ironically, the Twenty20 World Cup was marked by a catered – and well-attended – function for Australian past World Cup players at the SCG around the host’s opening game against New Zealand.
Former Test captain Mark Taylor has said he wanted to see all parties consider the bigger picture in terms of how they discussed the game.
“The only thing I would say to Justin, or to players, or to administrators in general, is I’d like to see everyone just think a little bit more about Australian cricket – and I don’t mean Cricket Australia, I mean Australian cricket – before they make comment,” Taylor told Wide World of Sports this week.
“It’s not great for the brand of Australian cricket. Let’s have a bit more positivity around Australian cricket. Less thought about individual brands, and a bit more about the team brand or the nation brand.”
