Warner salutes the fans
Australian vice-captain David Warner has taken to social media to thank fans as the pay war with Cricket Australia reaches breaking point.
Using the hashtag #fairshare, Warner yesterday tweeted: “Thanks to our fans for all your support. You can now see first hand what we have to deal with”.
He has also taken a huge swipe at CA in an Instagram post.
“Family is everything to me. I thought the same about my old workplace but I guess I was wrong,” the post read.
The players and the sport’s governing body have been at odds over the new pay deal for months, with the 5pm Friday deadline for a new Memorandum of Understanding to be signed gone — and more than 230 cricketers now officially unemployed.
The conflict stems from the cricketers’ desire to maintain the status quo of a revenue-sharing model that uses profit to dictate their payments.
CA says it wants to scrap the current system and offer top players fixed salaries so it can spend more at grassroots level.
There was no flurry of discussions yesterday between CA and the Australian Cricketers Association as neither party backed down from stated positions.
And the players’ association has railed against the governing body for leaving the game in “the worst state of uncertainty since the days of World Series Cricket”.
“Reasonable young men and women have been set upon by their employer with tactics not seen before in Australian sport,” ACA president Greg Dyer said.
“It’s been a case of divide and rule from the start and when that failed the threats started and haven’t stopped,” he said. “All of which has failed.”
ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson said an emergency meeting had been convened for yesterday at which a decision on the players’ next move would be discussed.
That includes the upcoming Australia A tour to South Africa, for which 11 players with multi-year state deals have been selected. Refusal to go would constitute cricket’s first ever player strike.
Several star players still overseas, including test captain Steve Smith, were expected to be part of the meeting via video-link.
The ACA has established a fund for players in dire immediate financial need, and the application process for that will be spelled out today.