Australian players might feature in CSA T20

With the resounding success of domestic T20 tournaments across the globe, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has decided to launch their own T20 league. They’re trying their best to rope in the best players from around the world to feature in their T20 Global League. Reports now suggest that Australian players too will be a part of the event as the dispute between the board and the players is yet to be resolved.

The current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the players and Cricket Australia (CA) will expire in 10 days and it seems as though the players are not willing to sign another one till their payments are settled. This indeed is a chaotic situation for Australian cricket as the players will either be playing in South Africa or will participate in private charity matches during their summer.

Cricket Australia will have to provide a “No Objection Certificate” to go and play in South Africa, but their legality over the players will be under the scrutiny if there’s no MoU between the parties. Just the way IPL’s timetable coincides with the initial phase of the English summer of cricket, South Africa’s T20 league will be during the same time.

But if the players fail to get a “No Objection Certificate”, they might play some exhibition matches within the country for charity purposes, as quoted by Sydney Morning Herald. Given the players opt to feature in these exhibition matches, the situation will just get worst as far as the board and players relationship is concerned.

Commercial structures to resolve the issue

Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) has a really tough job in hand right now to resolve this precarious situation. ACA’s chief executive Alistair Nicholson said the association had not yet contemplated the staging of matches last month during a launch of a company.

“That’s not something we’re looking at, at the moment it’s how do we support the players, we put in some commercial structures around the game post June 30,” he said. “What happens in regard to a cricket game, that’s not something that we’re necessarily planning for, but we’ll wait and see once we get past where negotiations are at,” said Alistair Nicholson.