The Australian cricketers and the nation’s governing body despite having discussions since Friday haven’t been able to reach an agreement on the Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) as told by the Australian Cricketer’s Association on Saturday.
The draw out pay dispute has stalled the A tour of South Africa with the squad deciding not to travel in the absence of a revised deal. Around 230 players were left effectively unemployed at the end of the last month when the five-year agreement expired after talks surrounding the union and the governing body was deadlocked.
“The ACA confirms that agreement has not been reached for a new MoU,” the union was quoted as saying in a statement with its Chief Executive Alistair Nicholson who has called for negotiations urgently with the players already unemployed for two weeks. It is simply an unfortunate condition but despite this, Cricket Australia at the heart of this dispute wants the two-decade old model under which the players get a fixed percentage of revenue to be removed.
Cricket Australia is of the opinion that the revenue-share model is unfit especially for the modern times which in turn is affecting the grass root level cricket, some of the players are of the opinion that the revenue model has affected the growth and prosperity of the game over the past 20 long years.
“The increased involvement of CA CEO James Sutherland has been pleasing,” Nicholson said. “A better understanding has been established on both parties’ positions.” After the Australian players decided to boycott the A tour, Cricket Australia termed it as disappointing as they were of the opinion that they tried everything to solve the issues.
Cricket Australia regrets that players have made this decision despite progress made in talks between CA and the ACA in meetings over the past week,” a statement read.
“These talks included regular communication between CEOs. While a new MOU has not yet been agreed, CA is of the view that these talks should have enabled the tour to proceed as planned.”
Meanwhile, the Australian senior team is scheduled to play a two match Test series against the Bangladesh in August-September followed by a limited overs tour in India and will eventually end the year with the Ashes at home against their arch-rivals England.