The latest World Cricketers’ Association (WCA) Global Leagues Hub Update provides new examples of how collective player representation can help strengthen standards and protections in professional cricket, while identifying persistent concerns around payments, contracts and player rights across the global leagues landscape.
Early engagement with player associations and collective bargaining are emerging as key features of stronger professional standards across global cricket, according to the latest World Cricketers’ Association (WCA) Global Leagues Hub Update.
Among the examples of positive progress, WCA highlights the inaugural European T20 Premier League (ETPL), which engaged early with WCA and the Irish, Dutch and Scottish Cricketers’ Associations to collectively negotiate player agreements ahead of its first season. In the United States, Major League Cricket has established a new collective bargaining agreement and negotiated standard player contracts with the United States Cricketers’ Association.
The update also points to positive engagement in the Bermuda Smash Invitational and the established player representation framework operating in South Africa’s SA20. At the same time, it identifies significant gaps elsewhere, including payment issues in the Max60 Caribbean and Bangladesh Premier League, concerns around collective player representation, contracting, commercial rights and independent security oversight in the Indian Premier League, and issues with player arrangements and protections in Belgium’s EUT20.
WCA CEO Tom Moffat said the ETPL demonstrates what can be achieved when leagues engage player representatives early and work constructively to establish clear arrangements. He also called for greater consistency, transparency and professionalism across the global leagues landscape, arguing that players operating within the same global framework should not experience fundamentally different standards and protections depending on the competition.
Established in 2024, the WCA Leagues Hub assesses major domestic leagues against criteria identified by players, players’ associations and agents as critical to professional standards and player welfare, identifying both good practice and areas requiring improvement.
Read the latest WCA Global Leagues Hub Update.
Photo credit: IMAGO / Pro Sports Images
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