I know that USED to be the case. Tim turned 23/24 and got it. Jesse hasn't come near to getting it.
Southee still loves a drink and still gets himself up to no good, he just tends to cover his tracks a lot better and not be so blatant about it. The issue here is that Jesse doesn't have the whole "Oh ****, I actually screwed up, I need to keep this under wraps" mentality because he still associates Cricket to what it's been ever since he's been 16 - a good excuse to get trashed Friday and Saturday night with other cricketers, talk a bunch of **** and be a bunch of ****heads in town.
It's a major issue at all levels of cricket, most young players aren't like Kane Williamson who had the maturity early on to not need to fit in that way, look at what happened to Josef Walker between the ages of 15 to 17 - went from training every day, eating right and wanting nothing more than to represent NZ into being a fat **** who can't lay off the weed because guys like Brook Hatwell got him into it when they both played for Hamilton. It's not to excuse Jesse, but more so, I maintain the only difference between him and others is the fact that he's got no tact when he does get caught.
Yeah, look, I agree that the sort of money a domestic cricketer makes isn't really all that bad - especially considering it's only for 6 months work. It's a thoroughly decent salary while you're getting it.
The tough thing is that you can't just be a cricketer between October and April and expect to turn up and perform in the next season. If you're a domestic cricketer you need to be training during the winter, doing fitness, hitting balls etc. In many cases you're effectively doing that on a volunteer basis, in and around any other commitments you might have. Sure, being a cricketer is living the dream but it's still tough - especially once you get to 25+ and see guys your own age set up in a career and with total job security. If you're not likely to play for NZ your potential earnings are pretty limited so giving the game up for something more secure must start looking pretty good.
It's all about trying to achieve balance. Personally I don't think what a domestic cricketer in NZ earns is fair for the level of commitment they're expected to give (both in and out of the actual season), but things won't change unless the revenue of NZC increases markedly. The one big improvement that could be made is making the contracts year-round. Make that 40k stretch over the whole year and expect that players do coaching or something over the winter, as well as their training. If we want a higher standard of FC cricket we need to treat our players like professionals for 12 months a year, not just for the 6 months when they're actually playing.
The money they make is horrible for one reason - most domestic cricketers have an earning life of what, 12-14 years? So unless they get into the Black Caps or an IPL side, they're never getting the type of income progression that other careers have which means they come out the other side and unless they've been educating themselves, they're screwed. And a lot of them aren't given that much help in that domain when you compare it to the programmes that NZ Rugby and the NRL have for their players.
I've got a lot of respect for guys like Mitch McCleneghan who went out and put a business start up together, to be honest, Cricketers are very well placed to work in the start up space and should look at this as an option as they've got the time it requires, profile and generally will operate quite well in the sales and marketing space. That's what I'd be doing if I was a 17 yr old and doing it all over again.
So than the real issue than becomes facilities, which is the perennial complaint for guys in NZ, if there was actually a place for them to adequately practice at each of the 6 franchises all year than you could pay them all year or pay them a reduced salary for the offseason I have no issue with that.
Though the level of commitment really isn’t that high in cricket, Im not involved in FC cricket so I don’t know for sure but I estimate that during the playing season you play 4 days a week tops for FC games, so a 10 hour day, than you might train/travel 4-5 hours on the other 3 days blocky may wish to correct me as he seams to be involved with current players– I base this from what I have observed from living next to EPOO no one is ever out practicing before 9am or after 5 even in the middle of summer when daylight permits. That is still only a 45 hour week, most non professional high level athletes do 30+ hours every week of the year while also working a 30-40 hour week .
Most cricketers will train a max of three hours a day - probably an hour worth of physical fitness, alternating cardio and strength, with two hours of skills work. Then they'll do maybe an hour or two of mental work around game planning. A few train more, Kane Williamson has been known to bat as long as four hour stints in the nets before going onto his fielding training. The wider issue is that during the season, if you're playing a four day match, you're expected to be available for travel/training two days before the match and be available for a post session a day afterwards - so there is a seven day period that you've got to do 10 or so times a year, it's not an attractive option for most employers but again this comes down to guys wanting to go and make something of themselves during their cricketing career and build something like a McCleneghan has, .
The easy answer though is finding sponsors for each region who can take on five to ten employees who have variable working schedules, it shouldn't be a hard thing in this day and age to organise but the major issue comes down to Administrators in Cricket being absolutely incompetent at almost every level from David White down. Every single region has their version of an Administrator who sits on his ass, hardly gets the roster/match schedules built, doesn't use any new age technology to get things like club statistics and websites operational and collects a cheque for effectively nothing and that's the issue. These guys aren't out seeking options to make domestic cricket more viable for cricketers.
