Cricket on brink of ‘peace’: Aus media

NEITHER PARTY MADE ANY COMMENT ON MONDAY BUT NEWS LIMITED OUTLETS HERALDED AN IMMINENT RESOLUTION

SYDNEY: Cricket Australia is on the verge of an agreement with the players’ union to end the long impasse over a new pay deal and avoid the need for arbitration, local media reported on Monday.

Australia’s top 230 players have effectively been unemployed since the last five-year agreement expired on June 30 and an “A” tour of South Africa has already fallen victim to the lockout.

With a two-Test tour of Bangladesh looming and the Ashes coming up at the end of the year, the parties were involved in lengthy talks over the weekend to broker a deal to end the acrimonious dispute.

Neither party made any comment on Monday but News Limited outlets heralded an imminent resolution under the headline “Aussie cricket on brink of peace”, while Fairfax Media reported that a “heads of agreement” deal was close to being struck.

CA chief James Sutherland proposed taking the matter to binding arbitration if a deal was not struck by early this week.

It is believed Australia captain Steve Smith could be playing a key role between the warring parties in Cricket Australia (CA) and Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), as they struggle to find a solution to the pay dispute issue which left as many many male and female cricketers ‘jobless’ at the end of June. COLOMBO: Mere hours after India had wrapped up the Galle Test on Saturday, KL Rahul was making his way to the dressing room in full batting gear after a long hit in the nets. Some time later, Rohit Sharma also followed him after spending hours honing his batting. The two reminded of the competition for places in the India team right now.

Rohit can vouch for how tough it is to come back into the set-up. After a long injury layoff, Rohit is waiting for his next chance despite three vital half-centuries in his last three Test appearances.

With Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane solid in their positions and Virat Kohli’s confidence in Hardik Pandya --- who made an encouraging debut --the fight for a place in the middle order has got tougher.

This is how competitive the situation gets in a winning combination when everyone is firing. After the first Test, there’s a battery of openers at Kohli’s disposal. It is a completely contrasting situation from their last tour here when it became so grim that Pujara was forced to open in the final Test.

“We’ve got a fourth guy (Vijay) who’s a regular opener for India who’s not fit. We’ve got all four openers firing now. It’s going to be tough (to pick the two openers) but it’s something that any day you’d like to be in this situation rather than having guys that are not scoring,” said Kohli.

For the second Test starting in Colombo, Kohli has been left with the welcome headache of picking two out of Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund. If declared fully fit, Rahul should walk into the team, having been the first choice