Pay dispute between Cricket Australia and its players still continues

Cricket Australia (CA) and Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) have been on war over pay dispute for a long time now. There have been many discussions between the two parties over the last few weeks but there are no signs of resolution. In the past week, we have seen mixed messages from both the parties. Players are of the belief that there is still a lot of work to be done to get a resolution.

Sutherland has joined talks

Players were agitating as to why CA chief was staying out of the negotiations. But over the past five days, James Sutherland has joined in the discussions and has held intensive talks with ACA chief Alistair Nicholson. The two parties are not able to reach an agreement on whether the cricketers should retain the previously used revenue sharing model.

Players want to be paid from the gross revenue while the CA wants to pay them from a set pool of funds. The two parties haven’t converged on this point, and ACA chief Nicholson believes that negotiations should be done faster as players are unemployed for the last 2 weeks. The cricketers have forfeited their salary over the last fortnight, and CA has given this money for the cause of grassroots development.

“The increased involvement of CA CEO James Sutherland has been pleasing. A better understanding has been established on both parties’ positions,” Nicholson said as quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Calls for faster negotiations getting louder

There is growing impatience from all quarters to reach an agreement at the earliest. Australia A tour of South Africa had to be scrapped as there was no deal in place. If the situation doesn’t change Australia’s tour to Bangladesh would suffer a similar fate. In that case, broadcasters would demand a refund and there would be trouble for Cricket Australia and players.

Australia is due to play an ODI series vs India in October before this summer’s Ashes series. Naturally, channel Nine is worried and wants the deal to be done quickly as this is the time of the year when they would be getting good sponsorship deals.