Australia’s cricketers, on Friday, rejected their board’s offer of a revised pay structure with only a week left before the current contract expires.
One of the key issues the dispute has revolved around is a long-standing agreement that hands access to the players players a fixed percentage of the revenues, something Cricket Australia had mooted, stating that it had hindered them from investing in the grassroots.
CA executive general manager Kevin Roberts made the new offer, “Player feedback suggests that the sharing of international cricket surpluses with male and female domestic players and the level of pay increases for male state players are critical issues for them,” Roberts wrote in the letter posted on the CA website. “We are therefore writing to indicate that CA is prepared to address these issues to help achieve a new MoU.”
The upcoming tours of Australia A travelling to South Africa, a two-match Test series in Bangladesh, and a limited-overs tour of India are under threat as a result of the dispute. The Ashes which which is slated to be held Down Under at the end of the year could also potentially be called off.
“The ACA has advised players not to sign,” the players’ body said in a statement. “The letter provided to players today from CA does not accurately reflect how far apart the parties remain with a week to go. The parties have not reached agreement on many fundamental issues.
“The contract offers do not contain Revenue Sharing for all players, and are not what they appear to be. They do not include crucial information regarding terms and conditions.”
With the deadline to sigh a fresh Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties only a week away, ACA president Greg Dyer, had called for a crisis meeting between the two parties, “With only seven days until the June 30 deadline, the ACA calls for emergency mediation to be conducted at CEO level,” Dyer said.
“With this, the ACA continues to search for ways to resolve the dispute. We are motivated by a sense of duty to the game and its players and frustration at the current process.”
Dyer also stated that a number of “common sense and reasonable requests” were rejected by CA, which included the release of financial information and forecasts.
Australia captain Steve Smith, in a video posted by the Australian Cricketers’ Association on Twitter, threw his weight behind the union, “The players are completely united behind the ACA in these negotiation terms,” Smith said. “We know that they’re working incredibly hard for us to get the best outcome for the game,” the 28-year-old added.