IPL 2017: Cricket Australia offers five players multi-year contracts to skip the Indian league

Cricket Australia has made an attempt to lure away its key players from the lucrative IPL by offering them multi-year central contracts, a report has claimed.

According to a report in Sydney Morning Herald , CA recently offered five of their marquee players — Steven Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood — lucrative three-year deal in exchange for them giving up on playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Ordinarily, Australian cricketers are given one-year deals.

The offers were made to the players by Pat Howard, CA’s newly re-signed executive general manager of team performance, according to the report. However, it is learnt that the players gave tepid responses to the CA’s three-year deals, which come even as CA and Australian Cricketers’ Association are locked in a dispute over a new pay deal for players.

Players like Smith and Warner, who captain their IPL franchises, collect over $1 million a year (over Rs 6.4 crore).

The report added that the memorandum of understanding between CA and players is set to expire on 30 June. With no sign of a resolution on the horizon, Howard’s approaches have been viewed with suspicion by the players’ union. CA says the move is aimed at minimising injuries and avoid the controversial resting of players such as Smith in Sri Lanka and Starc and Hazlewood in South Africa last year.

With inputs from PTI