Cricket Australia urges players’ union to enter talks to end bitter pay row
Cricket Australia has called for the players’ union to take part in last-ditch talks over the coming days to prevent the long-running pay dispute going to arbitration.
The sport’s governing body has rejected a so-called “peace plan” as being detrimental to the grassroots game, with the impasse putting Australia’s proposed Test tour to Bangladesh next month under threat, along with the following oneday series in India and even the coming Ashes series against England.
Cricketaustralia(ca)hasset a deadline of early next week for a memorandum of understanding to be signed or the matter will be referred to formal arbitration. CA chief executive James Sutherland told a media conference that the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) should enter into talks over the coming days in a bid to finally end an increasingly bitter pay dispute which has dragged on for several months.
The players’ union is unhappy with CA proposals which will change the way players are reimbursed for their image rights, with CA countering the new deal is needed to best fund all levels of the game. Sutherland said that players could be re-contracted at the start of arbitration, with CA happy to accept the outcome of that process. He also dismissed the ACA proposal of a peace plan. Australia’s vice-captain David Warner, pictured, took a dim view of the developments, posting a message on his Instagram account accompanying a picture of him in full Test garb, including baggy green cap. “This Baggy means the world to me,” he wrote. “Myself and all the other cricketers female and male want to get out there and play. Weoffered$30mofourmoney to grassroots as a peace plan. It was ignored. We asked for mediation twice before and it was rejected. Now CA says there is a crisis.
“The players are unemployed and some are hurting financially but continue to train. Administrators all still being paid. How is it our fault no deal is done. #fairshare.” Tour de France champion Chris Froome will race in the Vuelta a Espana as he bids to become the first rider in 39 years to win both events back-to-back.
No rider has triumphed at the Tour and Vuelta in the same year since 1978, when Frenchman Bernard Hinault saw off his rivals.
Froome, who claimed his fourth yellow jersey in Paris on Sunday, has finished second three times at the Vuelta but never won the Spanish race.
“I’ve got the opportunity and I’m certainly going to go for it,” Froome said. “The Vuelta is a race I love – it’s vicious but it’s three weeks that I enjoy.
“I’ve come second three times now and I’d love to win. To win both the Tour and the Vuelta in one year would be absolutely incredible.”
The Vuelta is the third of cycling’s three Grand Tours, along with the Giro d’italia and Tour de France, and was moved from April to take place in August and September in 1995.
No British rider has ever won the Vuelta a Espana, which this year starts on 19 August in Nimes, France and ends on 10 September in Madrid.
Froome does not have long to recuperate but Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford believes his star man is capable of an historic double.
“There’s no reason why not,” Brailsford said. “We’ve got four weeks to the start of the Vuelta.”
Meanwhile,italiancyclist Claudia Cretti is attempting to communicate with her family as she continuestomakeprogress following a crash at the Giro Rosa earlier this month.
The 21-year-old was admitted to intensive care at a Benevento hospital on 6 July after sustaining head and shoulder injuries when she crashed into barriers during the Italian tour’s seventh stage.
Cretti, who underwent brain surgery to remove a blood clot and control her intercranial pressure, was brought out of an induced coma earlier this week and she has since tried speaking to her mother.