Players split on boycott as resolve put to test
CRACKS could be starting to appear in the unified player stance against Cricket Australia with some advocating a boycott of next week’s Australia A camp, and the tour of South Africa, if a new pay deal is not done.
Offers of “unpaid” contracts for those with national deals that expire on Friday, including Test stars Glenn Maxwell and Usman Khawaja, will be knocked back with a refusal to go on the “A” tour.
But other players who are locked in to long-term state deals are indicating their desire to show up for the squad’s camp in Brisbane next Monday to avoid being in breach of their contracts and continue to push their international claims.
In the absence of a new Memorandum of Understanding, Cricket Australia has confirmed those players would continue to be paid under the terms of their current agreements.
But there remains confusion within Australian cricket ranks with some believing contracts binding players to their states beyond June 30 aren’t valid after Friday because they are linked to the expiring MOU.
Those inside CA however have maintained that if contracted players who continue to be paid refuse to fulfil obligations, like state training or participating in the “A” tour, that would constitute a strike.
Potential action against any striking players has not yet been discussed at CA headquarters, where officials remain hopeful of reaching a deal to ensure 230 players do not become unemployed.
The ACA has continued to ignore requests for meetings as the deadline nears, intent on waiting until the return of CA boss James Sutherland on Thursday morning.
Most in cricket now fully expect both parties to “fall off the cliff” together after Friday, that the South African tour could be sacrificed and all energy would be focused on getting a deal done before the Test tour of Bangladesh in August.
But even that could be put off and a one-day series against India in October would become the real crunch moment. Australian cricket cannot afford to miss the cash windfall a one-day tour of India would provide, or to upset the Indian board.
The huge value of cricket in India was underlined onn Wednesday when Chinese mobile phone maker Vivo paid $450 million for the Indian Premier League naming rights, a 453 per cent increase on the last deal.
That Indian flashpoint in October should at least ensure this year’s Ashes remains unaffected by the pay crisis, with the likelihood some sort of deal should be in place by then.
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