Cricket’s pay talks left in a nasty spin

ACCUSATIONS of name calling in meetings have seeped into cricket’s pay war as Cricket Australia yesterday blamed the players’ union for bungling talks which could lead to a lock out and threatens the Ashes.

A scheduled meeting between the warring parties yesterday didn’t happen after a letter from CA chairman David Peever arrived at the Australian Cricketers Association offices telling the union its approach was “the fundamental reason why no progress has been made”.

Peever, in formally refusing to mediate the matter with an independent party, called for a “mechanism” to break the deadlock with the June 30 deadline for a new Memorandum of Understanding fast approaching.

He wants the ACA to ditch what Peever called “unacceptable” preconditions about the revenue sharing model and start a structured negotiation almost working backwards, with arguments over the carve up of more than $500 million in player payments for the next five years to come last.

“The objective would be to work through CA’s proposal to identify the areas of agreement or in principle agreement, and areas of ongoing disagreement,” Peever wrote.

“Such an approach generally leads to a greater understanding between parties and reduces potential conflict.”

But some close to the negotiations said the whole process had been farcical, that some meetings had lasted less than five minutes and devolved to catty name calling, and there remained questions as to whether CA had any intention of wanting to deal with the ACA at all.

Last night Australian Twenty20 captain Aaron Finch, who will be unemployed after June 30 if a deal is not done, retweeted an article which said CA’s approach “smacks of anti-union ideology”.

And ACA president Greg Dyer rejected suggestions the ACA had not been willing to negotiate.

“To make inaccurate statements about negotiations not having begun is poor form,” he said. “I personally met with CA back on November 11 to commence negotiations, at which time we were commended for the position that had been presented on behalf of the players.

“Since then, the ACA Management have had over 20 hours of face-to-face meetings with CA. Given the differences in both parties, mediation seems the right step.”

Aussie wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, who leaves today for the Champions Trophy one-day tournament in the UK, said the players would not be affected by the pay talks.