James Sutherland, Cricket Australia chief executive, has insisted the longstanding contract dispute will not affect the Australia players as they are fighting out hard to win a historic series in India.
Exceeding all the expectations, Steven Smith’s men have gone 1-0 up in the Border-Gavaskar series after a comprehensive 333-run win in Pune and are in a commanding position in the ongoing second Test too. However, there are speculations that the ongoing contract negotiations between Cricket Australia and Australian Cricketers Association might affect their performance. But Sutherland said all negotiations will be held far away from the players back in Melbourne and is confident that it would be the last thing on the players’ mind.
Speaking on ABC Radio, he said:
“We’re in the flow with discussions that are going on back home. I think from the players’ point of view, it’s the furthest thing from their mind. They’re absolutely ingrained in this contest here. I think for them it (the negotiations) seems a long, long away.”
Cricket Australia suspended talks with the Australian Cricketers Association in December to allow the players play the Boxing Day Test and the Big Bash League without any distraction.
“Things will bubble away back home, and I’m sure we’ll make progress over the next little while. Bits and pieces will be written in the newspapers and they’ll pick up snippets from there, but it won’t be any sort of distraction for them,” he added.
The players’ union has questioned CA’s delay in putting forward their proposal for a new contract model, but Sutherland said that the cricket board is all ready to put the proposal in the coming days.
“We’ve certainly had discussions and the next stage is for us to put a proposal on the table,” he said.
“We’ll do that in the next little while. We’ll formulate the basis for the next stage of discussions.
“We’re absolutely committed to a partnership with the ACA and our players and we think that as each one of these collective negotiations comes around, it’s an opportunity to review how the agreement is working, how it can be better and how it better serves cricket. That’s the big picture,” he concluded.