Cricket Australia makes concessions in bid to end pay war

CRICKET Australia has blinked first in the bitter pay war by offering a re-worked profit sharing plan just as the players union called for emergency mediation.

After a bitter battle, are we seeing the first makings of a pay deal? Picture: AFP

CRICKET Australia has blinked first in the bitter pay war by offering a re-worked profit sharing plan just as the players union called for emergency mediation.

Just a week before the current Memorandum of Understanding expires the Australian Cricketers Association said recent talks had “failed to achieve a breakthrough”.

SMALL RELIEF: CA WON’T LOCKOUT UNCONTRACTED PLAYERS

MARCHING AWAY: PLAYERS UNHAPPY WITH CA APPROACH

PAY DEAL: KEEP CALM AND FOLLOW AFL’S LEAD

After a bitter battle, are we seeing the first makings of a pay deal? Picture: AFP

But CA saw recent meetings differently and after head negotiator Kevin Roberts held meetings around the country with state players, it had decided to include them in the profit sharing which had been limited to elite male players only.

While the revised offer still remains a significant change to the current model, by which all players receive as much as 26 per cent of CA revenue, it addresses the issue of the domestic players being separated from their national colleagues, which was a concern to the playing group.

In a letter sent to ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson this morning, which was also sent to all players and player managers, Roberts declared CA would also offer increased pay rises to male and female state players.

Cricket Australia has revised pay offer to players and will include domestic players in profit share - story soon @heraldsunsport

— Russell Gould (@gouldyheraldsun) June 23, 2017

“CA has listened to feedback from players and has also invited the ACA to explore the flexibility we are prepared to offer in order to conclude a new MOU,” Roberts wrote in the letter, seen by the Herald Sun.

“Player feedback suggests that the sharing of international cricket surpluses with male and female domestic players and the level of pay increases for male state players are critical issues for them.

“We are therefore writing to indicate that CA is prepared to address these issues to help achieve a new MOU.”

Is Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Alistair Nicholson beginning to win the pay war with CA? Picture: Getty Images

In a move CA hopes will bridge the impasse before next Friday, when roughly 230 players, including all national players, come out of contract, Roberts said the governing body would:

— increase the international cricket surpluses that are shared with players,

— include all domestic players in the sharing arrangements, and

— increase annual pay rises to male state players (with commensurate increases for WNCL and WBBL players to maintain gender pay equity)

“We trust that the ACA will respond positively to this new offer that CA is proposing in order to achieve a positive outcome for the players and the game,” Roberts wrote.

The revised pay offer came just as the ACA said the lack of movement “stains the game”.

But the ACA also declared players were willing to “take a modified share of revenue”, something more in line with the new offer from CA.