Mitchell Johnson Not Too Optimistic About Pay Dispute
Jul 20, 2017 at 12:45 PM
It may sound extremely funny, but the fact that Australia at present doesn’t have any contracted players is rather ironic. Officially and technically, the likes of Steven Smith and David Warner at present are unemployed, thanks mainly to the tussle between the board and the players.
The pay dispute that has ravaged the Australian cricketing fraternity for quite a while now, is far from dying down and has taken a colossal toll on the repute and integrity of the sports Down Under.
According to former pacer Mitchell Johnson, the damage has already been done. Johnson, who still plies his trade for domestic T20 franchises across the globe, felt that the two parties were profusely stubborn and that further added to the crisis. Johnson, however, was firm in backing his team mates and friends.
“It’s been pretty disappointing and once it’s all dealt with, the player and CA relationship are going to be a struggle … it’s going to be very ordinary,” Johnson said. “Even if it gets sorted, the damage has already been done. There have been personal insults about the players being greedy. That’s not the case.”
“The players have fought so hard, the ACA, for the last 19 years, and got this model that we have in a really good place, and other things as well,” Johnson added. “From the CA point of view, I know David Peever, ex-Rio Tinto, no unions. So that is the thing that concerns me a lot. If we lose this battle as players, does then the ACA start getting their legs chopped from underneath them and the players lose the ACA?
Saying that the future of the players was well at stake, Johnson said,
“That is the scary thing from my point of view. Cricket will still go on but I don’t know what sort of input the players will have in the future. I saw Nathan Lyon this morning and I think he’s as disappointed as everyone. The way it has been dealt with in the media, it probably should have been more of a private matter. It could have been dealt with very differently.”