From espncricinfo:
Quote:"Aussie cricketers speak often of their love for the baggy green, and how Test cricket is always their No. 1 priority. However this idealism is backed up by the hard truth that it is still more lucrative to be a top-tier Australian Test cricketer than anything else. As the former captain Michael Clarke once said: "Governing bodies must prioritise player performance and payment in Test cricket."
But as the likes of Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo and Lendl Simmons earn anywhere between Aus $65,000 (US $47,300 approx) and $120,000 (US $87,300 approx) for six weeks' work in the Big Bash League, the West Indies Test players are paid relatively meagre sums. Match fees were slashed from US $17,500 to $5,000 in 2014 as a result of an agreement between WIPA and the WICB that led to a mass walkout from that year's tour of India. By comparison, Australian cricketers are awarded Aus $15,450 (US $11,200 approx) per home Test, or $21,631 (US $15,700 approx) for overseas matches.
Contract retainers, meanwhile, provide an even wider discrepancy. The 12 WICB-contracted players are split into three categories earning between US $100,000 and $140,000. By contrast, the lowest ranked Australian contracted player, or the earner of an incremental contract like Peter Siddle or Usman Khawaja, will be the recipient of a deal worth Aus $250,000 (US $182,500 approx) in addition to their match payments. The top-contracted players, meanwhile, earn around Aus $1.5 million (US $1.1 approx).
Controvery over West Indian player payments has simmered ever since the catastrophic events of the India tour abandonment, which effectively ended the international careers of numerous players including Bravo. The deal struck between the WICB and WIPA had been intended to share the Caribbean game's revenue more evenly, factoring in the introduction of a fully professional regional first-class competition that is now in operation.
[....]
Another problem Lloyd highlighted was that of preparation time for tours. West Indies played their first Test in Hobart off the back of only one fixture in Brisbane, which a jetlagged XI lost conclusively to a team of developmental Australian players - many of whom making their first-class debuts. The expense of accommodating players for longer tours is a problem for West Indies, as is a poor bargaining position when scheduling tours with stronger nations.
"If a team comes to any country they should be able to play enough warm-up games to get accustomed to the conditions," he said. "We've travelled 12,000 miles and it's different here. We have jetlag, there's the heat, the hardness of the grounds, it's just getting accustomed to a lot of things and two four-day games would probably have put us in good stead.
"I've said that when I was chairman of ICC [cricket committee], that if we have young players - you can't blood a player on tour any more. We had a four-day game and two-day game, we had to play the guys we think will be good enough in the Test matches. Gone are the days when we came here in September or October and left in February. After the first month, we'd eaten everything on the menu.
"The point is we played a lot of games, we got accustomed to the conditions and you give a good account of yourself. It showed in the last game [at the MCG], we batted fairly well on a pretty good Test pitch, so I'm sure the guys will give a good account of themselves in the long run. It will take some time to build a Test team because we've lost - what, 10 of our players are playing the one-day format of the game. We have to try and look to build a team that's going to stand us in good stead for the future."
How much of a future West Indies can have remains to be seen. But as the figures show, they are presently playing - and losing - an unfair game."