The missing man of the pay crisis
IT’S hard work being a masochist. The cuts and bruises always heal but the search for the next batch of misery seems never-ending.
So as the two competing CEOs sat together in front of some old cricket netting live on free-to-air TV, as if to represent the hyped meaning of this fight — sure, I’ll spell it out ... old netting, grassroots investment — I was met with a tinge of sadness. The dispute was over. Yet I am still left with so many burning questions.
Who told CA that propaganda videos were a good idea?
Where did Watto get that rhinoceros-hide man-satchel?
Why did the ACA hold a press conference to discuss the fight for more money out the front of a prestigious, exclusive and only-for-the megawealthy golf club? No sense of symbolism?
It is clear to me that this fight has always been about the domestic men and women retaining their fair share. Why did James Sutherland make no mention of the domestic men in his press conference?
And where has James actually been? To me, it seemed that as soon as he saddled up his trusty stead and rode to the negotiating table, CA dropped their pants and allowed the ACA to get whatever they damn wanted.
It is only on reflection that I have been able to make any sense of James’s absence from the PR disasters of CA.
The videos. The press releases about press releases. The complete disregard for the negotiating process, and the role of the ACA, by sending proposals directly to players.
The inane mentioning of the half-dead dog called “grassroots”. The one CA tied to the clothesline and didn’t feed, walk or love.
This is pure speculation, but it certainly appears to me that James lacked alignment to the hardened bulldog approach of the early, ugly, spiteful and very public negotiations.
The board and its executive seemed to be revelling in the notoriety that the back and forward of the public spiting brought them. They craved their own voice so much that they unwittingly entered the vipers’ nest of newspaper as feature writers.
As lead antagonist of the CA push, why would you have any words knowingly published when known player advocate, and full-time God of the English language, Gideon Haigh, is the man responsible for the rebuttal? It played like a kids’ pantomime where the bad guy is, well, sing it out with me, “he’s right behind you!”
Why would the man with the proven record of negotiating with the ACA depart the country during a time when his involvement has since been proven to be the most important ingredient in the successful baking of this cake?
CA saw the ACA as a soft touch, as gettable, weak and ripe for the picking without the guidance of the No. 1 sports administrator in the country, and the only man to have successfully negotiated both an AFL/ AFLPA MOU and a CA/ACA MOU, Paul Marsh.
The fact that incumbent CEO Alistair Nicholson was negotiating his first CA rodeo provided the scent of blood that CA needed to enact their bullyboy game plan.
With James out of the picture, Rio Tinto could go to work with their union-busting game plan. Bully, demand, fight, scrap, spit and then wait for pissing of the pants before stamping on throats for another per cent.
When the pee didn’t come, and the players held firm, it was time for the prince to saddle up and save the day before international fixtures were jeopardised — and revenue was lost.
Because, ultimately, cricket is no longer just a game. This is not about grassroots. It’s not about participation. Nor is it about having fun, getting a tan and staying healthy.
The ugliness of this dispute has made cricket in this country solely about money. And people don’t like that. Hardworking members of the community can’t relate to an argument where already-rich people are arguing over who is going to be even richer.
And guess who feeds a large portion of that revenue through ticket sales, merchandise, club subscriptions, overpriced punnets of chips from the tuck shop, online subscriptions for live-streamed Shield games, pay-TV subscriptions and so on? Hardworking members of the community that’s who. And it’s this cohort of the CA revenue that was never once considered as this dispute raged on.
The saddest storyline in all of this is the lost celebration of the women’s game progressing into its first MOU.
HALLELUJAH! Sing it with me! Women cricketers are now full-time professional athletes in this country. It is special.
Cricket is now the leader for women’s sport in the country. A generation of players will embrace this opportunity and the next generation will be the ones to benefit most. It is a beautiful thing, but one that has been completely murdered by the power, ego and greed of the fat cats — AGAIN!
It certainly appears to me that James lacked alignment to the hardened bulldog approach of the early, ugly, spiteful and very public negotiations