LONDON: Cricket Australia officials are aware that some Australian players have been spoken to by individuals representing would-be rebel league backers Essel Group but hope to strike a blow to the Indian company's plans by finalising new deals with their centrally contracted players in England over the next week.
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Pat Howard, CA's executive general manager of team performance, is due to arrive in London on Friday and one of his first assignments will be holding contract meetings with the Ashes squad members who are among the 19 players on Australia's contract list for 2015-16.
Those talks have a different context this week than in previous years because of the proposed rival organisation fronted by business tycoon Subhash Chandra's Essel, the owner of India's Zee Entertainment and the Ten Sports television network.
CA are well aware that Essel operatives have been in contact with their players, a development that provides further explanation for the governing body's decision to offer some players multi-year contracts in the past month rather than the one-year retainers that have been more prevalent in recent years. It's understood some of the discussions with Essel representatives took place when the Australians were on the subcontinent in April and May for the Indian Premier League.
Among those offered two-year deals by CA was David Warner, who in the past week has given an insight into his view of Essel's ambitions, admitting it would be tempting if the company was forthcoming with plans hatched earlier this year to poach him and others with $50 million contracts.
"You can't rule it out, you can't say no, because ... we love playing the sport we do but we also love getting paid for what we do, so if we can be honest and up front [that it is better]," Warner told Sky Sports Radio on Monday. "If I say I'd never take it and all of a sudden I do, it looks stupid on your behalf. I'm just being honest in saying it's not out of the question, and I'd certainly have to think about it."
The new CA deals have to be signed by June 30, when the players' current contracts expire. Warner, Michael Clarke, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Chris Rogers, Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith and Shane Watson are the Ashes squad members who will be contracted to CA for the 2015-16 season, with Ryan Harris and Brad Haddin already on two-year deals stretching until 2016. Glenn Maxwell, James Faulkner, George Bailey and Aaron Finch, who are in England playing county cricket, are also on next season's list.
Despite offering multiyear contracts in a move described as "risk management" by Howard last month, CA officials are relaxed about the Essel threat, as it has to date amounted to nothing firm beyond their confirmation in May of intentions to set up a rival T20 league.
Chandra's re-emergence - Essel previously presided over the failed Indian Cricket League - was expected to be a discussion topic at the ICC annual conference in Barbados this week after the ICC launched an investigation following a meeting of executives in Dubai in April.
Among the attendees at the Bridgetown summit are outgoing CA chairman Wally Edwards, his deputy and successor David Peever, and chief executive James Sutherland.
