PHIL Hughes has retained his Cricket Australia contract despite being dumped mid-season from the Test team while Pat Cummins, Ed Cowan and Ben Hilfenhaus have all been cut and will suffer a big day drop as they return to state wages.
Usman Khawaja, who was not on the original 2013-14 contract list but earned an upgrade after playing three Tests in England is not contracted this year.
Australian cricketers are learning this morning who has and has not got a contract and a share of the largest every payday.
Cricket Australia will announce who the winners and losers are this afternoon.
The Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday that players would be on average earning 10 per cent more in 2014-15 than they did 2013-14 on the back of a massive new broadcast deal.
The various states sweat on who gets and doesnt get a contract and South Australia will be delighted that Hughes is off its books and being paid by Cricket Australia as it frees money for them to chase other players.
They had been in the market for Aaron Finch and is understood to be one of the states in the hunt for NSW Cricketer of the Year Sean Abbott.
Hughes retaining a contract on top of being asked to join the squad in South Africa is indication he is not far from selection.
Tasmania will feel the effects of having both Cowan, who like Hughes was dropped during the Ashes in England, and Hilfenhaus back on its payroll.
Australias successful Test cricketers, their state colleagues, Big Bash pinch-hitters and former players are all the beneficiaries of last years massive broadcast deal that has seen them pick up big pay rises.
It is expected that 18 central contracts will take be handed out early next week and the big winners are, appropriately, David Warner, Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin.
Those three will get the largest pay rises and will earn in the vicinity of $2m alongside Test captain Michael Clarke.
The Weekend Australian saw the contracted international players share a slice of a total player pool that has risen from $13.2m in 2013-14 to $14.6m in 2014-15.
The bottom ranked player is guaranteed $250,000 before marketing earnings, bonuses and match payments.
Players have the potential to earn from $3.3m marketing pool and $5m in bonuses if they continue to win matches _ the team got a $580,000 bonus for the Ashes whitewash.
International players will receive $13,100 (up from $12,000) per Test, $5,243 (up from $4,800) per ODI and $3,932 (up from $3,600) for a few hours at a T20 international.
Most of the contracts are taken by Test players although George Bailey, who is the T20 captain and an important ODI player, Glenn Maxwell and similar short form specialists will also be contracted.
Warner, fresh from a brilliant series in South Africa has announced himself as one of the most damaging batsmen in the game and will be among the top three highest paid players thanks to his ability and presence in all three formats.
Johnson was a fringe player 12 months ago but picked up 37 wickets at 13 in the Ashes and 22 wickets at 17 against South Africa.
Warner and Johnson picked up another $1m plus from the Indian Premier League.
Haddin too was on the outer 12 months ago having been pushed aside by Matthew Wade but the veteran keeper has been reinstated, accepted the vice captaincy and is playing all three forms so will be in for a big pay rise.
Haddin has opted out of the IPL this year to spend more time with his family _ a decision that cost him $320,000.
On paper Australian cricketers are the highest paid in the world with only Englands Test stars coming close. Alastair Cook is the highest paid Englishman on a retainer of approximately $1.5m but the side that was beaten 5-0 in the Ashes was picking up $21,000 per Test in match payments (considerably more than their opponents).
The top six Indian players earn around $160,000 on retainer and $9,000 a Test but the largesse of the BCCI, patrons and various sponsors boosts the pay of players.
Captain MS Dhoni earned an estimated $35 million a year, much of it through sponsorship and a fair chunk through the patronage of disgraced BCCI president and industrialist N Srinivasan who owns the CSK franchise that Dhoni captains.
Dhoni is even a vice president of Srinivasans India Cements, although that association has landed him in the middle of an unwanted controversy as the India Supreme Court examines match fixing allegations surrounding CSK, the Srinivasan family and the company.
Australian State players get the biggest pay boost with minimum contracts rising from $52,000 to $60,000 and the top players getting a rise from $155,000 to $176,000.
Australian cricketers did so well out of the recent broadcast deal that the Australian Cricketers Association organised a retrospective pay rise for anybody who played in the past 12 months as that was part of the negotiating period.
The players also get $10.75m paid into their pension pool and another $10.75m has been set aside to finance an initiative of the ACA that sees past players employed to further develop and promote the game.
ACA chief executive Paul Marsh sent players the details of the deal this week.
You will note there is a significant increase in payments across the board for 2014-15, he wrote to players this week. This is due to the new media rights deals secured by CA last year and the fact players get a percentage share of such deals.
As part of the agreed details, we have also agreed to make retrospective payments to players who were contracted in 2013-14 as a means of spreading this increased income over 4 years of the current MOU period rather than the three remaining years.
The ACA Executive are of the view that because the new media deals were done in 2013-14, players who were contracted in this year should receive some of this increased money.
It is important to note that we have smoothed the increases in player payments over the remaining 4 years of the MOU (inclusive of 2013-14) so that players will receive good year on year increases in payments. Before the new media deals were done we were expecting annual increases of only 2-3 per cent. Under the revised model players should expect annual increases of 7-10 per cent (assuming there are no further changes to revenue projections).
