Strike a possibility in cricket pay deadlock

THE first player strike in Australian cricket history is now looming large after limited talks yesterday failed to move the pay war any closer to resolution.

As the stark reality of cricket’s ugly mess comes into immediate view only a flurry of activity today can avoid 230 Australian cricketers, male and female, falling out of contract.

Cricket Australia has issued an edict that the behaviour of those players, while uncontracted, including playing in unsanctioned matches or signing unapproved endorsement deals, could have severe consequences, including six-month playing bans. But they are effectively free agents and that would almost certainly rule some, including Test stars Glenn Maxwell and Usman Khawaja, out of the upcoming Australia A tour.

The suggested temporary “unpaid” contracts to tour for free, which would have been rejected, were never formally tabled. But for another 70 players still governed by multi-year state deals, failure to continue training or being available to play as required would constitute a strike, as CA has told all of them they would continue to be paid under the terms of their contracts.

For 11 of those players, including would-be Test players Ashton Agar and Hilton Cartwright, that call to strike will be thrust upon them immediately as they have been selected in the A squad and are required to leave on a tour to South Africa next Friday.

A meeting of the Australian Cricketers Association executive in Sydney on Sunday, which includes current players Aaron Finch and Moises Henriques, will determine whether those players boycott the tour.

The meeting looms as the first major test of the solidarity within the wider playing group, which has been unbending in its desire to maintain the current revenue share model. Striking is not a guaranteed course of action given some players want to go to South Africa, not only to avoid a black mark against their names, but to push their international claims. The return of CA boss James Sutherland to Melbourne yesterday did not hasten a resolution.