PHILLIPS HEADS OFF
CRICKET Australia said yesterday it would take its bitter pay dispute with players to independent arbitration if agreement could not be reached by early next week.
Chief executive James Sutherland said unless intensive negotiations over the next few days produced a compromise, his organisation would seek the intervention of an industrial umpire to resolve the impasse.
The first match on the Test tour of Bangladesh is due to start on August 22, followed by a one-day tour to India in September and October before the home Ashes series, starting in November.
“We are at the stage now where we need to address this situation and cricket needs to get on with the game,” Sutherland said in Melbourne.
“We need players employed, contracted, focused not only on upcoming tours, but an exciting season of cricket ahead.
“We feel what the Australian Cricketers’ Association has proposed jeopardises not only the Bangladesh tour, but in turn the India one-day tour and even beyond that, dare I say it, the Ashes.”
The ACA responded last night, saying it will be working to resolve the dispute.
“Arbitration is an adversarial process more akin to a courtroom,” the ACA said.
“A further concern is the time it would take for an arbiter to meaningfully understand the complexities of revenue sharing in elite professional sport and then to make judgment.
“That said, the ACA will continue to work intensively in the CEO to CEO negotiations which are currently taking place with a view to achieving resolution.”