Australian cricketers may blacklist South Africa tour

The Australian cricketers are planning to boycott Australia A’s tour to South Africa later this month following the failure to come to terms with a new deal with Cricket Australia (CA). The Australian cricketer’s Association executive has scheduled a meeting tomorrow (July 2) to take a call on the issue.

The Australian Cricket Board and the player’s union were unable to settle terms between themselves and agree on a new Memorandum of Understanding by the July 30 deadline. The players are now unemployed and all the upcoming fixtures of the team are at serious risk, which includes the all-important Ashes series.

According to fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, the breakdown in pay negotiations has not gone down with the players. He added, “we are, obviously, willing to do what we need to.”

The player’s union will engage itself in a meeting tomorrow in Sydney to discuss the matter in details. The availability of players for the South Africa tour will be a topic of discussion in the meeting. More than 200 players are now without a contract and are unemployed which will also be talked about in the meeting.

ACA Chief Executive Alistair Nicholson said the union had planned for the possibility that no deal would be reached and had put in place a number of measures to deal with the associated contingencies. Among them have been the establishment of a players’ support fund to lend direct financial assistance to those out-of-contract men and women.

While Nicholson confirmed that the availability of players for the South Africa series will be taken up in the meeting, Hazlewood termed the beginning of a Saturday with no job was “a different feel”

Speaking to Fairfax Media, Hazlewood was quoted “To be contracted for the best part of 10 years, nearly for me, it’s going to be a different stage and we’ll see how it pans out,”

What’s ahead:

The current situation is not only a huge blow for the players but the board too as the upcoming fixtures are all in doubt. The Test series against Bangladesh in August, the ODI series against India in September and the Ashes later this year are on the brink of cancellation.

The players are expected to gather at Brisbane ahead of their South Africa tour. The Australian Women’s team is currently battling it out in the ICC Women’s World Cup but they have a special contract which is valid until the end of the tournament.