Final settlement offer tabled by New Zealand Cricket
New Zealand Cricket - 1 November 2002

Following a NZC board meeting today, and with the full endorsement of the New Zealand Cricket Board, the New Zealand Cricket bargaining team has tabled a final settlement offer to the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association in an attempt to resolve the current impasse and to bring industrial action by its members to an end.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden announced that the updated offer would increase the size of the player payment pool, by $300,000 from $4.7m (in the previous offer) to $5m.

"We have made this decision because we recognise the harm this dispute is doing to cricket. We are making a final effort to resolve the issue.

Features of the updated offer include:

Domestic Player Payment Pool

The domestic player payment pool will increase to $2m up 18% from last year
Each Major Association will contract 10 players
The top three ranked players will be able to earn $37,500 per season
Players ranked 4 to 6 will be able to earn up to $29,500
Players ranked 7 to 10 will be able to earn up to $23,500
A captaincy allowance has been introduced

International Player Payment Pool

The international player payment pool will increase to $3m up 11% from last year
NZC will contract 20 players
The annual retainers have been increased by more than 100% from last year
Match fees have been increased significantly from last year

NZC has indicated that if today's offer is accepted then the remuneration benefits payable under the NZC contracts will be backdated to 1 May 2002 and the domestic contracts backdated to 1 October 2002 without the players being penalised for industrial action taken during October.

"A major block in the negotiation process has been the difference in philosophies between NZC and the NZCPA," Mr Snedden said.

"The NZCPA philosophy is that, when NZC is allocating resources, we must satisfy the needs of international and first-class domestic players first and foremost then simply do our best with what is left over to look after the remaining 93,900 grass roots cricketers and the countless volunteers who are so essential to the administration of grass roots cricket.

"By contrast NZC's philosophy is that, while recognising that our elite players must be afforded top priority, we have to strike the right balance to look after everyone involved in cricket at all levels, whilst recognising our financial limitations.

"In the course of negotiations the NZCPA has told us that elite players must receive the utmost priority and that players have no responsibility for whatever consequence that might have for other areas of cricket in NZ.

"We had asked the NZCPA to assist us to identify where the extra funds that the players want should come from. The only proposal we have received from them on that point is that we should eliminate expenditure on NZC's grass roots development programme and that our Major Associations should eliminate payments that they currently make to clubs, districts, associates and affiliates.

"NZC will not accept that grassroots cricket should be sacrificed in this way. To do so would be to guarantee the destruction of cricket in NZ in the long term," Mr Snedden said.

"The NZCPA through the negotiations process has acknowledged NZC's right to manage the game and to make final decisions on priority when allocating its limited resources.

"NZC has made its decision and that decision is reflected in the final offer tabled today.

"The offer tabled today must be accepted by NZCPA no later than 4pm on Tuesday (November 5)," he said.

If the settlement offer it is not accepted within this time then initial consequences will be:

The State Max tournament scheduled for mid-November will be cancelled
The Provincial 'A' (national second XI) competition scheduled for December will be cancelled
NZC will review whether it is appropriate to retain the current format for State Shield and State Championship competitions

If the offer is not accepted by the specified deadline then NZC will terminate the bargaining process with immediate effect.

"I am disappointed that we have come to this point however we are at a stage where we have to move forward. Cricket will be played this summer. The players must now choose whether they wish to be involved in our first class programme.

"If there are players who don't want to be involved we will simply move on and use the services of those who do."

Teams	New Zealand.
Players/Umpires	Martin Snedden.
Tournaments	ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 in South Africa