Cricket: Fleming the half-million dollar man

The gulf in earnings between New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming and his peers just got bigger, with his yearly income now closing on $500,000.

Fleming, whose form in South Africa and Sri Lanka this year saw him rated No 1 of the 20 New Zealand Cricket (NZC) contracted players in June, is poised for his potentially most lucrative 12 months.

With his base salary of $125,000, combined with potential match payments of $130,000 and a new yet to be negotiated captain's bonus of around $40,000, Fleming's Black Caps salary could total $295,000.

And that doesn't include his recent county contract with Yorkshire which could be worth around $150,000, plus sponsors' deals and any bonuses the New Zealand team receive from one-day tournaments.

NZC have confirmed a restructured pay scale for their contracted players which sees fellow top-three players Nathan Astle and Shane Bond take a pay cut but Fleming maintain his base salary.

Under the new structure, the top 20 will receive base retainers starting at $125,000 for Fleming, and dropping by $5000 for each player.

Although the individual rankings haven't been made public, Astle is understood to be rated second, which now gives him $120,000, while third-ranked Bond will drop $10,000 to $115,000.

The move is designed to lessen the gap between the five different tiers which was $20,000.

Those ranked 17-20 will receive the minimum retainer of $45,000.

The Black Caps are set to play 10 tests and at least 28 one-day internationals in the next 12 months, at the agreed match fee of $6000 per test and $2500 per one-day international - win or lose.

For those who play every match on the tour of India and Pakistan, the home series against Pakistan and South Africa, and the tour of England starting in May, it will mean $130,000 in match fees.

NZC chief executive Martin Snedden said the new pay scale had been discussed with the Cricket Players Association (CPA) for much of this year, and it was agreed by all to be a fairer deal.

"It can be quite a subjective thing and a close call deciding between a player ranked three or four, and with a $20,000 gap we decided we could do better than that," Snedden said, adding that the player payment pool had remained the same.

The retainers for contracted players with the six major associations would also be adjusted, starting at $23,000 and decreasing by $2000 to the seventh-ranked player on $11,000.

Players eight through 11 would receive $10,000.

CPA representative Heath Mills said the outcome was "an excellent agreement that all parties can be proud of".

Whether the players' salaries would rise or fall next year depended on NZC's payout from the International Cricket Council (ICC) for this year's World Cup.

The ICC were still withholding $US2 million ($NZ3.54 million) for NZC's refusal to send their team to Kenya during the World Cup, and Snedden said an outcome was "months away, maybe even years".

It depended on the outcome of the ICC's dispute with World Cup broadcaster Global Cricket Corporation.

The agreement was the players would receive 22.92 percent of NZC's gross revenue and the ICC payout was a crucial part of that.

"If we can't recover most of the money the ICC is holding, we'll be battling to meet the target," Sneddon said.

Snedden is to declare a $20.9 million surplus at the NZC annual meeting on Friday, a result he said was expected as the first year payout from a World Cup was always considerably higher than the next three years.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand test squad to tour India assembled in Christchurch today and fly to Brisbane on Wednesday for an eight-day camp.

- NZPA