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Pay row: Sort it out, you're looking ridiculous

7th July, 2017
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Usman Khawaja may have finally got over that hump. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
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7th July, 2017
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Contemplating what to pen a few thoughts on this week, a couple of ideas immediately sprung to mind.

Number one, if every football report going is to be believed, was Wayne Rooney’s impending return to his boyhood club, Everton, after a stellar career a few miles down the road at Manchester United.

Of the polarised opinions such a deal has already created, there are those who can’t see anything but a footballer past his prime who will offer little to a team seemingly in the ascendancy while picking up a bucket load of cash along the way. Then there are those who can’t see anything but an excellent player with plenty still to offer, on a free transfer and with a desire to just do what he’s good at and succeed where it all started.

For what it’s worth, I’d lean towards the latter. When there’s talk of £20m being splashed on Olivier Giroud, and no doubt a hefty wage packet to boot, getting Rooney on board looks to be a simple decision to make. He’s got a good couple of years left in him and Everton are hardly going to be worse off for his presence.

The second was to compare the third coming of Gary Ballance, recalled to the England team for the first Test against South Africa, with that of Usman Khawaja who, unless something untoward occurs, will most likely return to a place in the Australian middle order when the Ashes get underway in November.

Of a batsman, who began life at the top level in fine style, banished to the domestic game on the back of a drop in form precipitated by a handful of the international game’s foremost seamers exposing a glaring weakness in his technique, and his flaying of county attacks to the point where a recall was both deserved and unsurprising.

And of another who, following initial struggles at the top table, burst back onto the scene both wiser and more accomplished before being jettisoned when a trial against Indian spin was deemed to be beyond him and his vastly improved method.

And, by a nicely-timed coincidence, it was a picture of Khawaja at a press conference, neatly suited up with notes and microphones placed in front of him and others, just below a headline of ‘Australia pay dispute: South Africa tour off as Cricket Australia fail to agree deal’ that put paid to the aforementioned germs of ideas.

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The latest development in a soap opera which has descended into complete lunacy. Primary school kids arguing in the playground over whether Iron Man is better than Spiderman would make more sense than the mess this particular saga has plunged into.

Australian batsman Usman Khawaja

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Two sides thinking they’re in the right, two sides not wanting to compromise, two sides so stubborn they’re unwilling to take a backwards step, two sides appearing increasingly stupid.

There are arguments which carry some logic on both sides of this divide, as have been made loudly and particularly clear in the vast amount of column inches inevitably given over to such a high-profile row, but if disagreements are allowed to fester, as this most certainly has been, then the result is escalation.

Watch any documentary about how wars start – no, this is hardly of that magnitude but the principle is the same – and you won’t fail to spot the idiocy surrounding the actions of individuals and the chain of events which, once set into motion, desperately required the intervention of someone with a sense of clarity as opposed to those who have impenetrable tunnel vision.

Clashes between workers and their bosses happen, of course they do and especially when money is the crux of the matter, but this stand-off between Cricket Australia and the ACA is one which should never have been allowed to occur.

A bit of diplomacy and sensible dialogue somewhere down the line, not the most difficult of things to engage in you may have thought but obviously tricky for those not inclined to be either diplomatic or prepared to talk, and there would’ve been no need for Khawaja to don his smart gear and serve up the respective party line.

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And now there are tours being cancelled, players out of work and even more barbs being traded back and forth.

So, Cricket Australia and the ACA: Get in a room and sort it out as, and this is all there is to offer, it has now, if it wasn’t already, become ridiculous.

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