2nd June 2017
Comments Off on Australian Cricketers’ Association disappointed by CA’s refusal to negotiate
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The Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) claims to have “not heard” from Cricket Australia (CA) as the festering pay dispute continues to spiral ahead of the Champions Trophy.
Alistair Nicholson, ACA chief executive, met with Australia’s Champions Trophy squad in Birmingham over the weekend to update them on the continual impasse between the bickering parties. The standoff has engulfed Australian cricket and created much uncertainty once the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) expires on June 30.
CA has told players they won’t be paid after this date forcing disenchanted cricketers to retaliate and threaten to boycott playing for their country, leaving Australia’s proposed tour of Bangladesh in August and the Ashes in jeopardy.
An ACA spokesman said CA had shown an unwillingness to negotiate. “Our phones have been on but we’ve not heard from anyone,” the spokesman told AAP. “It’s only four weeks until this has to be sorted out, we can’t understand their refusal to even sit down and negotiate. No one wants to be in this position, but time is running out.”
The sticking point in the dispute centres on CA’s desires to overhaul the revenue-sharing system that has been at the core of the MoU for the past two decades. “We have made a counter offer to what they are proposing, which is a varying model where players would get 22.5 per cent of cricket revenue,” the spokesman said. “We also want them to put in the same amount into grassroots cricket and the rest to run the game which is $1.5-1.6 billion – a very significant amount of money.
“It’s is great that female players are being rewarded, but for James Sutherland to say that domestic players don’t contribute to the game, is wrong,” he added. “The Big Bash is made up mostly of domestic players and has been a huge success and a real jewel in the crown of Australian cricket with huge interest in the competition from around the world.”
Taken from CricBuzz
