Australia’s swashbuckling opener and vice captain, David Warner, has made an emotional Instagram post, in context to the ongoing pay dispute crisis with Cricket Australia (CA). Warner, who along with more than 200 other professional cricketers stands unemployed on account of their contracts expiring, reached out to his fans through social media, to express his sadness surrounding the entire fiasco.
Emphasizing that the Baggy Green means the world to him, the southpaw opened up on the matter and mentioned how ignorant CA had been when the body turned down two arbitration attempts. As a result, the current scenario of the Australian cricketing fraternity seems utterly dull, with question marks looming over the future.
With tours of India and the home Ashes lined up, further embarrassment could potentially await CA.
“This Baggy means the world to me. Myself and all the other cricketers female and male want to get out there and play. We offered $30m of our money to grassroots as a peace plan. It was ignored. We asked for mediation twice before and it was rejected. Now CA says there is a crisis. The players are unemployed and some are hurting financially but continue to train. Administrators all still being paid. How is it our fault no deal is done. #fairshare,” mentioned Warner on his Instagram account.
CA chief executive James Sutherland however, was confident that an arbitration would soon be reached. “What we’re proposing out of this is that we do go into some intensive discussions over the next few days that will hopefully see the matter come to a resolution,” Sutherland said. “Failing that, we believe that the best course of action is to get the matter resolved through arbitration, get the show on the road and move on,” said Sutherland.
“I think what we’ve put forward here is a good solution. It’s a fair-minded solution. It highlights where we’re up to. There’s no doubt there’s a bit of an impasse here, but I believe that with positive intent and the right people in the room, we can get this sorted in the next few days. Failing that, we’re prepared to say that we’ll put the issues to arbitration, we’ll accept the umpire’s decision, and the game goes on,” he added.