Nathan Hauritz to receive huge pay rise following bumper summer
By Peter Badel
January 31, 2010
He was once a veritable pauper, barely able to pay bills on a meagre $36,000 state contract with New South Wales.
But off-spinner Nathan Hauritz will become Australian cricket's next $1 million man after the most successful summer of his career.
Just four years after he contemplated quitting top-level cricket, Hauritz is set for a bumper pay day when Cricket Australia finalises its 25-man contract list for the 2010-11 summer. Now entrenched as Australia's leading spinner in Test, one-day and Twenty20 cricket, he is tipped to surge into CA's top 10 players - a rise that will see him secure an estimated base deal of $600,000.
Factor in match payments - the 28-year-old has pocketed more than $360,000 in playing fees over the past year - and he is a world away from the cash-strapped tweaker who was handed NSW's last contract in 2006.
Former Test quick Dave Gilbert, now Cricket NSW boss, said Hauritz deserved every dollar after a magnificent 2009-10 summer that saw him finish as Australia's leading wicket-taker alongside Mitchell Johnson with 29 at 26.82.
"Nathan is now our best spinner in all three forms of the game and is pretty much a regular member of the team," Gilbert said.
"In terms of rankings, he's putting himself right up there among the big boys like (Ricky) Ponting, (Michael) Clarke and Johnson. He's almost certainly put himself in the top 10 contracted players this year.
"I can't be happier for Nathan. No one deserves more success. I remember when he came here, he was on the most basic playing contract. When he rang us saying he wanted to make the move (from Queensland), we said, 'look, we can't promise you a contract', but in the final analysis we just squeezed him in.
"He is the perfect example for any player who is prepared to have a go and back themselves.
"Some of the crap he's had to deal with would have killed off a lesser person. The way he's gone about his cricket despite extraordinary criticism says a lot about his character."
