Threat of Australian players’ strike fades as negotiations get underway – Cricket News Update
The chances of an Australian cricket team strike look less likely after a meeting held between Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) in regards to the dispute about a new pay deal, paved the way for fruitful negotiations.
“We had a productive meeting, we made a lot of progress, but we're at a point now where our respective boards need to consider where we're at,” ACA chief http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Paul-Marsh-c81144 told the Sydney Morning Herald.
With the current deal due to expire on June 30, both parties are under pressure to finalise a new agreement and sign an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) – however, the matter initially resulted in a deadlock, as both organisations were unable to find common ground.
Cricket http://www.senore.com/Cricket/James-Alexander-Sutherland-c65430 claimed would make the players richer by up to $80 million in the coming five years, as compared to the deal which is currently about to expire.
The new deal offered by the board is based on a system which calculates the amount of revenue players are to receive in accordance with their performances, as compared to the present deal, which grants players a fixed 26% of the cricket board’s revenue. The new, reworked definition of revenue is based on the suggestions of the Argus Review last year.
“The simple way of explaining that is the Argus committee believes the players should be well paid, but they should be paid more, for example, if they win a series 5-0 than if they lost a series 0-5,” a CA spokesman explained.
However, the players’ union refused to accept the new deal, claiming it would deprive the Aussie cricketers of up to 30 million Australian dollars. The pay deal stalemate threatened to break out into a full-fledged players’ strike, and destroy the Australian team’s chances in their upcoming limited-overs tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013, of which 4 ODIs are scheduled to take place after the June 30 deadline.
Earlier in the month Marsh had claimed that while the players’ union was looking for a quick resolution of the issue, the players would not hesitate to go on strike if their demands were not met. However, skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 claimed that he hoped the matter would get sorted before the deadline, while Bailey termed the possibility of a strike a “disaster”.
However, the recent meeting between the CA and ACA seems to have put that possibility to rest, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Simon-James-Marshall-c90362 insisting that their main aim was to reach a resolution.
“(I) don't want to go down that path,” he insisted, when asked about whether they were still considering a strike. “Our priority is to try and get a deal done before June 30.”
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