Sports Minister Greg Hunt Hints At Government Intervention Should CA and ACA Fail To End Pay Dispute Before Summer
Jan 13, 2019 at 4:22 PM
The ongoing dispute between Cricket Australia and Australia Cricket Association has attracted the attention of the top men in the state government.
Federal sports minister Greg Hunt has hinted that should the divide between the two organisations reach a crisis point the government shall intervene to sort things out at the earliest.
The situation between the two sides seems never ending at the moment.
Things reached a tipping point after the players hinted at a potential Ashes boycott if CA does not bother to discuss possible solutions with the player’s association.
In the wake of the threat, the sports minister has now made himself available to broker the deal keeping the interest of sports in mind. This should perhaps make both the involved parties – CA and ACA – to sit down and conclude the dispute as soon as possible.
Hunt stated that summer of cricket is “part of our national identity” and the government would ensure that no such boycott could never happen.
“If it got to a last-minute situation, I suspect that we would offer to provide good offices brokering between the parties,” Mr Hunt said on ABC’s Insiders.
“But there is six months between now and the Ashes. It would be unthinkable that in the end, we wouldn’t have a full team.
“I do not see either the players or the administration returning to the late ’70s where we had a second-rate team. The players love playing for Australia.
“The administration, Cricket Australia, knows that this is not just fundamental to the sport, it is part of our national identity. I am very confident that they will reach an agreement.”
Hunt states that he would only interfere as the mediator if things don’t work as contract issues in sporting bodies are best left to be dealt in between the players and the sports associations.
Hunt feels that there is plenty of time to gets thing back on track and a full strength Australia team will take the field on the boxing day later this year.
“What I don’t want to do, across all sports, is try to step in and become the mediator in contract disputes,” he said.
“If there were a fundamental threat, at an appropriate time, we would offer to work with them.
“But all the advice I have is that we’re six months to travel and the Ashes will be proceeding with a full Australian team and come Boxing Day, you’ll have Steve Smith and David Warner and the rest of the team out there.”