Australia players won’t be pressured by board: May

MELBOURNE: The Australian cricket board faces an uphill battle to convince players to jettison a revenue-sharing model that has underpinned the game’s development for 20 years, according to former union boss Tim May, who brokered the landmark deal in 1997.

As the inaugural chief executive of the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), May played a leading role in landing the model that has made the country’s cricketers among the highest paid in the world.

Cricket Australia now says the model, which has long allocated players about a quarter of total revenues, is obsolete.

The board has made an offer that allows only international players to share in surplus revenues, while domestic cricketers will have to settle for fixed amounts.

The offer promises a hefty pay-rise on players’ earnings in the current five-year deal, but the players’ union has rejected any departure from the sharing model out of hand. The dispute has become increasingly bitter, and CA chief executive James Sutherland raised the stakes at the weekend by declaring players would not be offered alternative contracts if they failed to reach a deal by the July deadline.

The threat, said former Test spinner May, would only stiffen players’ resolve. “With six weeks to go before June 30, I think it’s inflammatory – and makes the players bind together more – for the CEO to come out and say ‘these are the terms that we are offering … either accept or be unemployed’,” May saidin an interview from his home in Austin, Texas.

“An ultimatum like that would suggest that CA don’t want to get back to the negotiating table and negotiate this stuff. I find that puzzling. I think the cricketing community would be questioning their desire to get a deal done.”

The breakdown in negotiations has raised fears of a possible players’ strike for the Ashes starting in November, a hugely anticipated Test series against England and a big contributor to CA’S coffers. – Reuters