Relations take turn for better
Ken Borland
While South African Cricketers’ Association (Saca) CEO Tony Irish stopped short of saying the relationship between the players’ union and Cricket South Africa is the best it’s ever been, yesterday’s signing of the new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was hugely positive news and marks a major improvement in relations.
At the start of the year, Thabang Moroe, the then-acting CEO of CSA, was using strident, union-breaking talk, but he and Irish yesterday seemed to be on the same page, in fact all 400-odd pages that the MoU contains.
“The day to sign has finally arrived, we had planned to settle this much earlier, but we needed to find middle ground in terms of what works for both CSA and the players. As CSA, we can confirm our commitment to the revenue-sharing model and we are happy that the only change to the MoU is that it really includes all South African professional cricketers now with the addition of the semi-pro players and the ladies,” Moroe said yesterday.
“It’s been quite a long road, a bit longer than anticipated, but this MoU locks down all the player arrangements for the next four years,” Irish said. “It’s very important to have that clarity and vital in the context of where the game is going internationally, with a lot of focus on retaining our players, which this MoU gives us the best chance of doing so.
“We also have a solid recognition agreement now between Saca and CSA, and the process of how we deal with disputes or grievances has been agreed to, as well as how the next MoU negotiation will run in 2021/22. We need this in place for the players because there has never been more choice available as there is now.”
Moroe praised Saca for the responsible manner in which they conducted the negotiations.
“There has been an increase in the percentage paid to the players, but Tony has always been very responsible in terms of making sure cricket survives. Saca never demand more than we can afford, which ensures CSA still has enough money in the coffers. We now have a solid base to the relationship,” the CEO said.