Australian national cricket team vice-captain David Warner warned the "ongoing pay dispute" might leave the squad without its top players in the home Ashes series against England in November, according to Amlan Chakraborty of REUTERS. Cricket Australia "has threatened the players with unemployment." Warner said that he and his Australian Cricketers' Association colleagues would not "buckle at all." Warner: "If it gets to the extreme they might not have a team for the Ashes. I really hope they can come to an agreement ... we don't really want to see this panning out like that where we don't have a team, we don't have cricket in the Australian summer. It is up to CA to deal with the ACA. It's obviously in their hands." He added, "We thought something along the lines of this might happen. ... It's not come as a shock, but more the fact it has come so early. ... We want a fair share and the revenue-sharing model is what we want" (REUTERS, 5/15). In Sydney, Adam Collins reported Warner's comments "follow an array of support for the ACA's position on social media from current and former players," including Pat Cummins, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson. Warner mentioned the Caribbean Premier League and England's Twenty20 Blast tournaments as "potential destinations for national players in the short-term if they are out of contract on July 1." He said of CA's offer of three-year contracts, "It is fantastic with the security but you can't just try and stop people from playing other tournaments" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 5/15). In London, Tom Bryant reported CA board member Mark Taylor said, "Things haven't been going anywhere for months now and I know that Cricket Australia feel the ACA aren't negotiating at all. Cricket Australia want to change the MOU, we want to get away from what they call a revenue-sharing model. ... Although, the one being offered to the players is still revenue-sharing to a certain extent. No one's worse off. Women are going to be very well paid under the new model" (GUARDIAN, 5/15).
SEEKING COMMON GROUND: In Sydney, Anthony Colangelo reported ACA CEO Alistair Nicholson "rubbished" claims made by Sutherland which said that ACA "knocked back a great deal" and had not done enough to "come up with a solution to the standoff." He said, "I totally disagree with that. We've come up with a solution that's a win-win and that was rejected by CA within two hours. Us coming to the table is really important and putting up mediation as we have is a sign of that. It is in our interest to get this done ... the players want it done, they want to play the Ashes" (SMH, 5/15).
HEALY MAKES PLEA: In Brisbane, Robert Craddock reported former cricketer Ian Healy "urged Australia’s cricketers to avoid strike action, or even talking about it." Healy was playing in '97 when the Australian cricket team "voted to consider strike action before an 11th hour breakthrough sealed a historic deal" that saw Australia's cricketers "win a set percentage of the game's revenue." He said, "I think a potential strike over a model of payment is just not on. The game is wealthy. Everyone is doing well. I would not even be threatening to have a strike. We are not talking about massive issues here. Strike action should be avoided at all costs and I think the players will feel that as well. They don't want to strike." Australia's top 20 cricketers average A$1.2M ($890,000) a year in payments from CA. Healy said that it was up to CA to justify why it wanted to "abandon the 20-year payment model and the players needed to explain the reasons why it should be retained" beyond the obvious "we like the model" (COURIER-MAIL, 5/15).
'UNCIVIL WAR': Craddock also commented Australian cricket is "heading for an uncivil war and the fallout will turn fans off the game." Cricket "cannot afford to lose" fans given its "struggles at all levels bar the booming Twenty20 scene." Both CA and the ACA "must be careful where they tread." Good luck "drawing a tear-drop from Bob the Busdriver over your pay demands" when you are earning A$2M ($1.5M) a year and he is "struggling to pay the electricity bills." Of course it is "more complicated than that but the essence of the matter is that no Australian cricketer will ever die in poverty and the best of them are extremely well paid as they deserve to be." CA "must also watch its step." Its players are its "most precious resource and they need to be treated with the utmost respect" (COURIER-MAIL, 5/14).
