Players drop mediation calls in sign cricket pay war could be close to an end

EXPECTATIONS are rising cricket’s great pay war may be resolved next week, after players dropped their longstanding demand for Cricket Australia to agree to third party mediation.

Players dropped their longstanding demand for Cricket Australia to agree to third party mediation.

EXPECTATIONS are rising cricket’s great pay war may be resolved next week, after players dropped their longstanding demand for Cricket Australia to agree to third party mediation.

There were fears the ground made in ending the impasse might have gone up in flames on Thursday thanks to a bizarrely timed attack on the players’ union by CA Chairman David Peever, which came barely 24 hours after fellow board member Mark Taylor had called for compromise and a repairing of relationships.

The staggering timing of Peever’s broadside and the accusations levelled by him didn’t go down well at The Australian Cricketers Association, but ahead of another huge day of meetings in Melbourne on Friday, the smackdown doesn’t appear to have railroaded a push from both parties to finally find a prompt resolution.

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Since May, the ACA has pushed hard for CA to agree to mediation, and by June 23 they stressed those calls had become a fully-fledged emergency, so far apart were the two parties.

Two weeks later and despite an Australia A tour boycott there was still no sign of the parties even getting into the same room.

Players dropped their longstanding demand for Cricket Australia to agree to third party mediation.

However, regular and constructive negotiation the past few days between the two chief executives James Sutherland and Alistair Nicholson — the ACA’s other longstanding request — has resulted in pleas for a mediator to be abandoned.

Of course that could change if talks stall again, but as it stands the backing down on mediation is the strongest indication yet that a treaty could be signed at least in principle, by midway through next week.

CA has no choice but to act quickly with sponsors livid at being left so badly exposed. Phone hook ups between head office and edgy corporate partners have been happening all week with fears more players could publicise private car deals they sign with rivals of Toyota and ACA general manager Tim Cruickshank still to fly to India to explore options to sell players’ image rights.

The pressure to act fast is also on the ACA, with out of contract players urging their union to get them the resolution they want — especially with today the day they were next due to be paid.

Chairman Peever, who has stayed silent in the background during the MOU negotiations, chose this pivotal week to pen an opinion piece expressing his fury that his legitimate motivations for trying to change the pay model have been brought into question.

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland.

In defending himself and CA from ‘personal’ attacks, Peever still continued the theme of airing dirty laundry that has marred this whole saga by accusing the players’ association of sabotaging the game and of running a campaign so reckless it wrongly portrayed administrators as slave drivers.

“Not content with that level of over-reaction, the ACA has gone much further, refusing to allow players to tour, threatening to drive away commercial sponsors and damage the prospects of broadcast partners, lock up player intellectual property into its own business ventures, and even stage its own games,” he wrote.

It’s understood the ACA demanded a please explain for the comments in meetings yesterday, but in the context of the insults that have flown fast from both sides of the fence, their public response stopped short of pouring further petrol on the flames.

“The timing of Mr Peever’s letter is disappointing, because it does nothing to further any progress that we are trying to make,” said an ACA spokesman.

“It is almost two weeks after CA have forced the players into unemployment and is refusing to back pay them, despite the players training for free.

“The ACA don’t apologise for holding CA to account or for asking the hard questions on behalf of our members that must be answered for the betterment of cricket.

“The imputation that the players and the ACA are sabotaging the game is wrong. We are currently talking with commercial and broadcast partners and are offering them a way through this.

“We have kept these stakeholders abreast of the issues in the negotiations and the importance of them to the players.”