ACA’s mediation request rejected by Cricket Australia

Cricket Australia chairman David Peever has refused to accept the request made by the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) for mediation in the pay talks between CA and ACA. The ongoing dispute between the administrators and the players isn’t yielding any fruit since both the parties are standing stiff at their stands and are not willing to budge from their present stands.

In a letter to Greg Dyer – the president of the ACA, Peever states that it is “extraordinary” that the ACA has requested the intrusion by a third party into the matter without attempting to negotiate based on the current offer give by CA, which has sought to break up the fixed revenue percentage model existing since the past 20 years.

“The preconditions you set out in your letter are unacceptable to CA,” Peever wrote. “They may be genuine issues of contention from the ACA’s perspective, however they should not be an insurmountable barrier to even commencing good faith negotiations.”

Sutherland’s stand

After Peever rejected the request made by the ACA, the CA chief executive James Sutherland bluntly announced that all the cricketers out of the contract would not be paid later than June 30 if ACA doesn’t resume talks.

“As James Sutherland indicated in his letter to your CEO last week, the approach the ACA has taken in demanding certain preconditions be met before it is prepared to begin negotiations is the fundamental reason why no progress has been made to date,” he wrote.

He further said that he doesn’t find it appropriate for a third party to get involved in the matter, and work through CA’s proposal.

“The objective would be to work through CA’s proposal to identify the areas of agreement or in principle agreement, and areas of ongoing disagreement. I am confident that such an exercise would find much common ground, a way forward on outstanding issues and build momentum.”

Amidst all the confusion and chaos, it was learnt that the coming Ashes will also be affected if the dispute is not settled anytime soon.