Mitchell Johnson lambasts Michael Slater on social media

Adding more fuel to the raging fire of pay dispute in the Australian cricket, former fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has lashed out at retired batsman Michael Slater. Slater had recently been involved in an on-air spat with another Australian opener, Ed Cowan. The ongoing feud about the remuneration model was laid bare for public scrutiny after both these clashes.

The bitter tiff over players’ remuneration model between the Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) has turned ugly with each passing day. Nearly 230 cricketers are currently unemployed after the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two governing bodies expired last week. The simmering rage over the lack of efficiency in solving the dispute is writ large on the reactions of many affected players.

Johnson strikes out at Slater

Slater, on Monday, had been embroiled with Ed Cowan over the matter of pay dispute on breakfast radio. In the same strain, Johnson sided with Cowan and posted tweets against Slater.

The 47-year-old had earlier claimed to have never played the game for money and that he wasn’t worried about the financial side of things. Being a player caught up in the storm himself, Johnson took offence to his statement and came out in support of the ACA. He also made a well-directed jibe at Slater by using the hashtag #ferrari in his last post, pointing towards the latter’s professed love of fast and flashy cars.

Here are the tweets by Mitchell Johnson:

Michael Clarke has put forth a solution

Owing to this tussle, it is almost certain that the upcoming Australia A tour be scrapped, while there are fears this summer’s Ashes could be affected by the impasse. As a temporary solution, former Australian captain, Michael Clarke has proposed a simple short-term solution, urging the warring parties to extend the previous agreement for 12 months. Expressing his hopes for an imminent truce, Clarke told the reporters at the Nine Network’s marketing launch for the Ashes, “There will be a compromise. The ACA and Cricket Australia will find a way to make this work.”