Australia players could be unemployed after another breakdown in wages talks

UNLESS THE IMPASSE ENDS, THE AUSTRALIA A TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA AND LIMITEDOVERS TOUR OF INDIA ARE UNDER THREAT

More than 200 of Australia’s top cricketers face unemployment within days with a bitter pay dispute “extremely” unlikely to be resolved by a deadline on Friday, players’ union president Greg Dyer has said.

A new memorandum of understanding (MoU) is struck between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), with the current agreement set to expire on June 30.

Dyer said players and CA remained “a long way apart” on basic issues and the union was preparing its members for unemployment.

“It is extremely likely that as of July 1 we’ll be jumping over the cliff together,” he told local media on Tuesday. “The fundamentals of the deal are nowhere near to being resolved.

“Over 200 of Australia’s most senior cricketers are unemployed as of the 1st of July. “We will be assisting in whatever way we possibly can in that but they’re unemployed.”

At the heart of the dispute is a long-standing agreement that gives the players a fixed percentage of the revenue of the game, a deal which CA says prevents them from sufficiently investing in the grassroots.

CA offered a revised deal on Friday but the union rejected it.

Unless the impasse ends, the upcoming Australia A tour of South Africa, a two-Test series in Bangladesh and a limitedovers tour of India are under threat, with the Ashes also looming at the end of the year.

Cricket Australia has declined to comment on the negotiations but said in announcing its revised offer last week that it was “100 percent committed” to resolving the MoU by the deadline.