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James Sutherland has given a grim update on the pay dispute engulfing Australian cricket, with negotiations between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association seemingly breaking down once again.
CA’s CEO said it was time for both parties to get together with the real intent of brokering a deal in the coming days, and said CA would be calling for the matter to progress to arbitration should any issues not be unresolved by early next week in part of a four-part plan proposed to the ACA.
“We believe now is the time for the game to get on, to get played, preparation for tours and the season ahead to happen,” Sutherland said.
“And to that end, we’re prepared to take residual issues to arbitration and we’re prepared to take whatever decision comes. In cricketing parlance, we’re prepared to accept the umpire’s decision and move on.”
Attention now turns to the ACA’s response, and whether they will agree to arbitration or not. The reaction of star limited-overs batsman Chris Lynn to Sutherland’s comments certainly doesn’t bode well on that front.
Umpires decision ?????
— Chris Lynn (@lynny50) July 27, 2017
When addressing the media in a rare public appearance since getting involved in the negotiations at the start of July, Sutherland essentially accused the players of stalling tactics, claiming the ACA wasn’t showing the same urgency as the game’s governing body.
“I’ve had some increasing concerns about whether everyone is going at the same pace and dealing with this issue with the same level of urgency,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland also claimed the ACA’s latest proposal, which includes $30 million of grassroots funding, is not in the best interests of cricket in Australia, saying “the devil is in the detail.”
“As we do our analysis on that plan, we find that cricket as whole is worse off,” Sutherland said.
“Certainly our ability to fund greater investment in grassroots is compromised by the way that plan is put together.”
The latest incident in the ugly pay dispute is an unwelcome one, and comes hot on the heels of some seemingly positive news for cricket fans. Reports emerged earlier in the week that CA had agreed to a form of revenue sharing – the main sticking point in negotiations to date – but the latest news indicates both sides remain far from reaching a deal.
While there are still hopes the mid-August tour of Bangladesh could be saved by an agreement between the two parties in the next few days – or by the ACA agreeing to CA’s proposal – the future of that series, as well as following ones against India and England, remains increasingly murky.
Cricket Australia’s four-point proposal to the Australian Cricketers’ Association
1. That CA and the ACA engage in intensive period of negotiation over the next few days in a final effort to reach sufficient agreement on the fundamental issues that would allow a HOA to be executed by early next week.2. If that proves unachievable, CA proposes that the parties agree to take the outstanding issues to arbitration. CA would accept any outcome determined by that process in order to get the game back on track and the players back under contract.
3. Under this proposal, players would be re-contracted at the commencement of arbitration and remain contracted until the final MOU can be signed.
4. Any dispute issues that arise after the initial arbitration that are not able to be resolved by negotiation after a certain time period would also be arbitrated to ensure that the full MOU can be signed by an agreed target date.