Australia players move to take back image rights from CA

Australian cricketers yesterday unveiled plans to take back their own image rights, firing the latest salvo in an ongoing pay battle with the country's cricket board. It is the latest power play in an increasingly bitter stand-off between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association over a plan to scrap revenue-sharing.

With no end in sight to the impasse and the current deal expiring on June 30, the ACA disclosed plans to form a new business to help male and female players directly negotiate sponsorship deals.

Establishing "The Cricketers' Brand", designed to manage and commercialise player's intellectual property rights, was necessary due to "the uncertainty of all parties regarding IP matters should the players be unemployed post June 30".

"When players are threatened with unemployment and when they learn they receive zero per cent of the digital revenue they generate they are naturally concerned," said ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson.

To be launched on July 1, it would see all media, advertising and promotional deals controlled by the ACA, not CA as they currently are.