Ian Chappell likens Cricket Australia's methods to Donald Trump's leadership style

The ongoing pay dispute that CA and its players find themselves entrenched in is getting serious by the minute. With Australia A boycotting the South Africa series, high profile players being out of contracts and now reports suggest that the English side isn’t willing to tour Australia for the 2017-18 Ashes, the most influential Test rivalry in cricket today.

Considering the swiftly escalating situation Cricket Australia has to ensure that things don’t get out of hand. Asked for his insights on this inflating issue, former Australia captain and batsman Ian Chappell wasn’t impressed with how the board was handling the situation.

He saw two main objectives that the CA pursued in this dispute, “to reduce the amount of money being paid to first-class cricketers and to split their association,” Chappell wrote in his column for Hindustan Times. He identified that there was plenty at stake in the form of future commitments for the Australian team that included a limited-overs tour to India and the Ashes that could be affected by this dispute, or perhaps even help resolve it.

Three events that could cause a deal to be agreed

“Now that the June 30 deadline for a new MoU has passed and the Australia A invitation to tour South Africa has been declined by the players, there are three events that could cause a deal to be agreed.” Two of those three events would have a significant effect on when and how an outcome will be reached. “The next period of interest will be the ODI tour to India in October. It’s highly unlikely CA will want to aggravate the BCCI by cancelling that tour, so look for a deal to be in place by then or else the tour is likely to be re-scheduled,” Chappell said.

“Then there’s the Ashes series. This is a highly lucrative tour that creates great interest among the public and usually causes a spike in the playing numbers at junior level. CA won’t want to forfeit any of those lucrative Ashes opportunities and I also can’t imagine them just handing the series to England on a platter by choosing a sub-standard team,” he added.

The Aussie was critical of the fact that CA was looking to reduce the wages of the “overpaid” first-class cricketers, claiming that the “lure of a lucrative wage” provides incentive enough “young athletes choosing a career path, more of a level playing field”.

He was quick to identify the crux of the problem between the players and the board, stating that, “There has to be a certain amount of trust and respect on both sides for it to work successfully. Neither the trust nor the respect is visible at the moment.”

With important tours coming up for Australia, and the players being on the edge of their restraint, it will be interesting to see how the board handles the situation, because the more the resolution is delayed, the worse the situation gets.