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Cricket Australia, Players' Association Hail Australian Football League Deal

Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association "hailed a new deal" signed by Australian Football League players as "backing their cases in a bitter pay dispute," according to Nick Mulvenney of REUTERS. Australia's top cricketers "face being locked out" unless a new memorandum of understanding is struck between CA and the ACA before the end of the month. On Tuesday, the AFL players agreed to a A$1.84B ($1.4B) six-year deal with the AFL that "tied their wages to competition revenue for the first time." At the "heart of the cricket dispute is a long-standing agreement that gives the players a fixed percentage of the revenue of the game," a deal which CA said prevents it from "sufficiently investing in the grassroots." The ACA was first to weigh in on the AFL agreement, with CEO Alistair Nicholson congratulating the football code for "embracing the virtues of partnership" in the deal. CA "hit back" on Wednesday by also welcoming the AFL deal which, it said, was "more closely aligned with the proposal that Cricket Australia has offered our elite players" (REUTERS, 6/21). 

BLUNT WARNING
: In Melbourne, Wu & Pierik reported Australia's cricketers have been warned cricket is "at risk of falling into the same hole as rugby if players do not give up the revenue-share model." The "blunt warning" was issued at a meeting fronted by CA lead negotiator Kevin Roberts, High Performance Manager Pat Howard and Cricket NSW CEO Andrew Jones. Players were told cricket was "at risk of becoming the next rugby and argued the incredible growth of the AFL and rugby league was because those codes did not have a revenue-share model." CA's latest bid to end the deadlock in the pay dispute was met with only a "lukewarm" reception among the players (THE AGE, 6/21).

DOUBLE STANDARDS: In Sydney, Ben Horne reported CA accused the ACA of "double standards" over why it will not allow female players a cut of a A$29.5M ($22.3M) adjustment ledger. A letter from Roberts to Nicholson "shines an explosive light on the volcanic gulf and poisonous relationship that stands between the two warring parties." In the correspondence sent last week, Roberts challenged Nicholson on the players’ association’s "steadfast position that half of the significant adjustment ledger surplus should not be rolled over to feed into the next pay deal." Roberts argued a precedent was set in the '11-12 MOU when that "unique," one-year A$16.8M adjustment ledger "was rolled over" and implored Nicholson it is therefore "unfair for the ACA in the next MOU to exclude the new batch of players -- which includes women for the very first time -- from the cash." The ACA responded "fiercely" to the letter, "fuming at the inference it is trying to short-change women and claiming gender inequality in the game is in fact of CA’s making" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 6/21).

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