Cricket's "brutal" standoff "shows no signs of ending" as players ask where the A$1.9B ($1.45B) in revenue attracted during the last contract period is being spent "if grassroots cricket is missing out," according to Peter Lalor of THE AUSTRALIAN. Australian Cricketers' Association representative Simon Katich "hit out hard at the administrators," saying that they were accountable for spending and "it is they who have let down the game at the park level." Katich said, "The players bring in approximately 80 percent of the revenue into the game and take a percentage out as their wage under the existing model. How the rest of it is spent is up to Cricket Australia. If grassroots has been let down then they have let it down, not the players." CA has no major sponsors for the Test, ODI or T20 sides, although financial group Magellan "is understood to be keen to put its name on the Test shirts" but will not sign anything "while the dispute drags on." The Nine Network is in the "unenviable position of trying to sell advertising slots for the summer’s Ashes series with no real certainty that it will go ahead." CA sources said that progress has been made in negotiations, but ACA sources denied that, "saying that any offers of compromise they make are rejected" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 7/12).
GIVE AND TAKE: In Melbourne, Andrew Wu reported CA Dir Mark Taylor called on both sides in the "bitter pay war" to reach a compromise as another former Test player declared the ongoing dispute a "plague on both their houses." The "conciliatory tone" taken by Taylor, the "most senior CA figure" to speak publicly about the issue in more than six weeks, "will raise hopes a deal can be done." Taylor, who in '97 led the players' fight for "the revenue-share model the board he is now part of wants removed," said that the dispute was harming "not just the game's governing body but the players." Taylor: "I think there has got to be compromise on both sides, in any negotiation you give and you take and when you get to that situation -- which I hope we are getting very close to -- now then you get very close to a resolution" (THE AGE, 7/11).
'SETTLE IT': In Sydney, James Massola reported Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull and British PM Theresa May met on Monday and "agreed on just about everything" during their 30-minute press conference, including an issue that was "pitched up like a googly in the final over the day: Ashes cricket." They were asked, "On an issue of grave interest and concern to both our countries, there is a real risk there may not be an Ashes series because of the players strike, I was wondering if either of you would like to reflect on that?" Turnbull invited May "to the crease first to answer the question," and the British PM "did not falter, immediately highlighting a three run win by the English women's team over Australia in the cricket World Cup" on Sunday. May: "We always welcome any opportunity to play the Australians at cricket and show them a thing or two, how it is done." Turnbull: "Australians want their team on the field, beating the Poms, so I encourage both sides to settle it as quickly as possible" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 7/11).
